I will be referring to knivetsil's post (71696.shtml) because it touched on a lot of what I was thinking.

"This forum seems to me like a place that expects a lot out of people. Of course, spam is and should be deleted. But if you just look at the content of some of the posts, they are, almost without exception, very eloquent and well-thought-out."

To comment upon the op system first:
I don't think it needs to be abolished because, like the spam that needs to be deleted, sometimes certain people need to be corrected and certain behaviors need to be curtailed. BUT. I don't think it should be used for more than that. I'm all for a ban on using op powers for purposes of humor. The ops, as a general rule, have enough wit that they do not need to rely on things such as kicking someone for fun. Sometimes they know that someone wouldn't mind, but I'd say get rid of it entirely just to make things easier. (This is, of course, a complete discussion in itself.)

"This forum seems to me like a place that expects a lot out of people. Of course, spam is and should be deleted. But if you just look at the content of some of the posts, they are, almost without exception, very eloquent and well-thought-out. For me, it was very hard to match that level of sophistication in my posts. But I tried. At first, all was going pretty well. But now I've noticed that of the last dozen or so of my posts, almost all have either been deleted, not responded to, or responded to only negatively. So I stopped trying. Which is why I haven't posted in the past month and a half, because I figured that I wasn't a good enough poster to post much of anything on this forum, seeing as the rest of you really didn't appreciate much of what I said. My self-esteem was taking a beating, and so I stopped posting, figuring it would be better for me, and you all really didn't need me here. In fact, I wouldn't have posted anything on here again if it hadn't been for Sam's post. So I guess, to sum it up, I've stopped posting because the forum seems uninviting because I feel that I'm not on the same level as the rest of you."

Yes, sometimes people post junk. But knivetsil put forth effort to rise to the forum's standard, and still felt like the effort wasn't enough. I know this is only one person, yet it happens all the time, from people who feel like they don't fit at all to people who feel like they belong.

"Just now, I understand what Gahalia was talking about, and I agree completely. I remember many times when I was about to post something but didn't because I figured people would think it was stupid and/or wouldn't care."

This is, basically, my point. If this is a community, people who are following the forum policy shouldn't have to feel like this.

I don't know right yet what could be done about it, because I think that a large degree of it is inherent. Lots of people who post simply write well, and of course they shouldn't be expected to stop. But my first thoughts would be:

The elitism in chat probably influences the way people perceive the forum.
When multiple posts by the same person get deleted, they naturally will feel down.
A lot of times when people don't get a response to their post, they feel that it wasn't good enough.

As I said, these are just first thoughts; there is a lot more thinking to be done.