An excerpt from RinkChat, reposted with the permission of its participants. Discuss.

Gahalyn: I get the feeling that the forum would be dead if it weren't for Howard.
Eric: Yeah.
famous: Definitely. He's the only one keeping it going.
famous: We need new ideas for the forum.
Maryam: I haven't looked at the forum in ages.
Gahalyn: famous: What do you mean?
famous: Gaha: I dunno. Some fresh things to talk about. And a way to collect those things somewhere. I doubt Sam wants to add anything, but stil. We need new/different things to talk about.
famous: Or maybe just more "interesting" things.
Zarniwoop: I think the problem, such as it is, is that we know each other too well.
famous: Could be.
Gahalyn: What about newcomers?
Zarniwoop: And it's something of a closed community.
Gahalyn: Yeah, okay, but should it be?
Zarniwoop: I don't think anyone's deliberately making it so.
famous: I think the forum is the only part of the site that actually isn't closed.
Gahalyn: I like what happened in the work-at-home-with-kids thread...
Zarniwoop: I think it's partly a side effect of the community side of things being and staying an adjunct to the rest of the site.
Zarniwoop: There's another very big site I visit and participate in with a massive membership where the original purpose of the site got superseded and though it's got loads of other really cool stuff, the vast majority of people go strictly or mainly for the boards.
Zarniwoop: Now, we've lucked out and it *hasn't* degenerated into a hints-board situation.
Zarniwoop: But on the other hand, you've also got really good debate about the subjects you don't see come up on the Forum no more.
Zarniwoop: And I think a lot of that is down to the membership. It's not just large, but there's a much more relaxed feel to it. While on the one hand, you've got people posting there who know and meet up with others from the place a lot more often than we meet up, they still discuss those subjects, and this sentence has gone on too long for me to remember where I started from.
Gahalyn: So it makes sense that people are going to get really energetic about posting and have a lot to say.
Zarniwoop: Right. And more specifically, there's a lot of highly-political people over there.
Zarniwoop: Who care a *lot* about what they care about, be it ID cards or anarchism or capitalism or gun nuts or the electorally-apathetic.
Zarniwoop: And they also aren't as attached to the people they spar with on a regular basis.
Zarniwoop: It's like an extended group of very good mates compared to an extended family living under the same roof.
Zarniwoop: Very good mates go out drinking together and have a laugh and occasionally go too far and then they patch things up and carry right on arguing with each other.
Zarniwoop: But it doesn't really matter because it's just the Internet and at the end of the day you're just another bloke on the end of a computer.
Zarniwoop: Whereas on the Forum, you *know* everyone very very very very well.
Eric: And all the things that people care about have already been gone over on the RinkWorks Message Forum already.
Gahalyn: Eric: Do you think people don't feel free to bring those topics up again?
Gahalyn: And maybe new people don't feel comfortable enough posting about issues like that?
Mollie: Here it is hard to say anything controversial because everyone will disagree with you.
Eric: Gahalyn: I don't know. I know that on another board I go to if you bring up a subject that anyone mentioned in the past 50,000 years everyone will yell at you.
Gahalyn: Eric: *nod*
Eric: And also on that board, if the topic of the thread changes from the initial post, people get annoyed.
Eric: Which is stupid.
Eric: Also, everyone on that board is like fifteen years old.
Zarniwoop: And (speaking purely for myself) I am very loath to start a topic that might stir up any controversy because I don't really like arguing with people on here, because I don't feel that sense of "it's just the Internet" here.
Gahalyn: I don't think good discussion has to always be arguing.
Mollie: No, but here it always turns into that.
Zarniwoop: I feel like if I express an opinion and someone else disagrees and we get into a long debate, I get the feeling it might be remembered and held against me later.
Gahalyn: Yeah, what you both said makes sense.
Eric: Yeah. I fear to tread into any debates probably because I know people around here pretty well and I converse with them a lot.
Zarniwoop: Whereas over at the other place, I can call someone a $%$%^$% ~~~££####3435 ARSE£$£$%, and he'll call me a £$$^%$ ^*^&8 ++--/*~~!!!! right back, and then we'll meet up in the pub a month later and have a laugh about it over a pint.
Eric: So if I say something that they totally disagree with, and especially if I were to lose my cool, it's not just some random person I'll never meet again, it's someone I know and probably spend a lot of time (idling) in chat with.
famous: Personally I like the arguing. It's more interesting.
Eric: famous: I like arguing, in person, if the other person knows I don't have anything against them.
Eric: But I don't like arguing online.
Eric: Because everyone else is always better researched than I am.
famous: Whereas I assume, because I'm well known around here, that people will know I don't have anything against them.
famous: I figure this site is the best place to have an argument, for that fact alone. At the end of the day, I actually know these people. And they can seperate they're overall feeling about me from how we disagree over some small point.
Eric: famous: But, see, most people I only kind of know.
Eric: There are only a few people that I'm close enough friends with to be comfortable with the idea that they don't have any problems with me and that they know that I don't have anything personally against them.
Maryam: I've generally felt that any arguing here is civil, and people understand that there's nothing personal.
Mollie: I always take arguments here personally.
famous: E: True. But as in all arguments everyone should feel they know enough to make an argument. Otherwise not start one.
Eric: Yeah.
famous: Moll: For future reference, please don't with me. Because I never mean them personally.
Gahalyn: famous: What you said about separating overall feeling and a disagreement... I think that's why I like to discuss/debate in chat.. Probably because there is more of an immediate back-and-forth that I like
Gahalyn: versus the forum
famous: True.
famous: But then again the forum gives a chance to think about what you're saying before just spitting it out. Which is where I get in trouble.
Gahalyn: Yes, I think each place has merits.
famous: I used to be really sensitive on chat and the forum. Then I learned that you nearly can't do that online. Otherwise you're in constant pain and worry.
Mollie: !
Mollie: So instead you decide to cause others constant pain and worry?

(Here I wonder if famous meant "sensitive" as in "too sensitive to what other people say," while Mollie interpreted her use of the word to mean "sensitive to other people's feelings.")

famous: No, I generally try not to. But I also try to help them learn what I learned from my experience. Generally I try to be nice, but also to not expect everyone to be sensitive to my needs, since online they aren't so visible. A few good old friends helped me learn that in here.
famous: That second sentence was worded weird. But I'm assuming it makes sense enough.
Gahalyn: It does to me.
Eric: I don't ever really even post on the forum anymore.
famous: E: I don't either unless an interesting topic to me is already there. I am terrible at creating new ones, and maybe that's why the forum isn't something I care too much about.