In the decade-plus that I've used the internet, I've come to the realization that it is a very poor medium for dialogue in the communication of emotion, opinion, and personality. It's a great tool for information exchange and research, but so often on forums do things come out the way they were not intended. You have no body language, no facial expressions (and smileys are a poor substitute) to go by, all you have is pure text by which to form your own opinions and emotions. Then people jump to conclusions and make judgements that are often incorrect which leads to tension and animosity, whereas if they'd discussed the same thing face to face the outcome would've been a lot more pleasant. I know from experience.

The fact we cannot edit posts here only exacerbates the situation. Remember that once it's on the internet, it's sacred nevermore.