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I think a lot of the back and forth has a lot to do with relative ages and stages of growth.  The NY Times covered a meeting of "older folks" in Oklahoma.  In it, moderates- middle of the roaders- complained that "we live in a country where people can no longer work together towards solving a problem- rather, the emphasis in problem solution seemed to be on 'getting the other guy'".That's a perfect description of some of the threads I see, not only on this forum, but pretty much every other Net site I look at on a regular basis.(The Times article jumped to the immediate conclusion that the Oklahoma folks were getting ready to form a third party, which is probably a WRONG assumption.)Currently, we have 45,000 plus people who took the time to register as members.  They are from different ages, backgrounds, cultures and countries.  The only commonality we all share is that we are fascintated by large objects requiring a set of steel rails to travel.  If we can accept that commonality, we will also accept that there will be differences of opinion, with more than a dash of pride thrown in.There is value in passionate debate, but little value in scoring personal points.  Some people are not going to be convinced by reason or fact.  That's why we have folks out there posting stuff about shackle cars, GE vs. EMD, or bringing back steam locomotives.  Nothing will derail a passionate debate on trying to solve a problem than what I call the "Jane, you ignorant slot" offense.  If you have watched Saturday Night Live forever, there was a weekly Point/Counterpoint parody that was run between Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtain.  During one of these debates, Ackroyd made the infamous statement I quoted above to lead off his argument. The result was nothing more than focus on how Jane Curtain reacted- rather than the subject being debated.The same thing applies here.  That's why we have moderators- to recognize when the conversation has gone beyond Patriots vs. Chargers and devolved into a bar brawl.  The moderators job is to break up the fight.How I deal with this is a bit of personal honesty- accepting that someone out there might just have fact and reason behind their argument, rather than personal feeling.  Then it's a matter of just stepping back, or, better, acknowledging that they may be right.
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