I think a lot of it goes back to the anonymity of the Internet. Stupid or nasty stuff can be said with little fear of reprisal. Someone coined the term "Internet tough guy" many years ago. There are several of these types here, and other boards as well.
There's a lot to this. Some folks have never had a proper educational beat down and it shows.
There's also the speed with which the internet lets us exchange information. If I have a question, I can post it here and within days or hours have a conversation with several knowledgable people who understand my problem, have dealt with several variations of it themselves, and are willing to share their original research (unpolluted by marketing language) on potential solutions.
In the old days, you had to snail mail a question to the editor and hope that they chose to print an answer your question several months later. Best case was that you could get the home address of a writer, write them a letter, and get a more detailed response in a month or so.
Okie John
