: This came up a few weeks ago, and at the time I sad that negativity isn't
: breaking us apart. Having had sufficient time to ponder the question, my
: answer must change. HBO is dying while other equally negative communities
: are thriving because we aren't a bunch of fans. We're friends who get
: together to play a cool game. Negativity ruins that.
: *Adjusts shirt collar

I gotta say this is a very quaint assessment. I think it's spot on.
Not that I'm one of those "friends who get together to play a cool game", but I think the feel of this community in general IS that. There are those of us who float around, looking for news posts -- and for my part, I rarely post, and usually only to add a little snark or wax on meta topics (such as this) - not because I don't love Halo, but because most of the time y'all are so much better at expressing what I want to express, and certainly have more knowledge about the details in the universe than I do, so I greatly value reading discussion threads (positive and negative) talking about such things. I often wait a bit before posting, just to see if someone else posts the same thing I want to but only better :)

Don't sell ALL yourselves short! I think the 'hurt' people are moreso those who are in that "friends who get together to play a cool game", than those who lurk and find on-topic discussions interesting while avoiding topics that aren't.

I honestly do still find there to be MUCH more quality and serious discussion here than other forums (and I rarely if ever visit those Halo forums for precisely that reason). In those, the noise to signal ratio is high - but the noise is pointless and irrelevant and childish mostly. Here, the noise to signal ratio doesn't feel as high - the but noise is negativity. That's the problem, I think. What I fear is that the negativity will drive away high influence forum users (such as Leviathan), and we lurkers will merely be left with scraps and dust to pore over once it all settles. *sigh* :(