We've recently experienced a few threads, such as this one, which have gone off the rails and other threads bemoaning the lack of participation, especially from new members, as well. Perhaps there is a link between the two? Here's a couple of suggestions that might help solve both problems.
When we post of an experience or opinion, we must realize that not all others have had the same experience(s) and that some who have had that experience may come away with an all together different opinion as to the cause/results of, or how to handle that experience. Unfortunately some express those differences in a manner that may come across as confrontational. 99% of the time those replies, which are not in agreement with ours, are not intended to belittle OP's ideas or opinions, they are just expressing a different take on the matter.
We must not allow a difference in opinion to get under our skin. Each of us can come to a different conclusion based on our own past experiences. No one enjoys reading pages of back and forth between two or more members which can, and does usually result in the thread going off the rails if allowed to fester. I suspect that more than a few new members reading such may decide that PM is not the place they want to spend leisure hours.
This is what we must all work to avoid at all costs if we wish to grow the forum.
My suggestion (to us all) is when making, or replying to a post, take a moment to re-read that post before hitting the "Post" button. See if your wording needs a bit of tweaking to avoid possible misinterpretation by other parties that read your offering. It doesn't take but a second and can avoid lots of issues; it is also amazing the number of spelling errors and/or statements we can reword to better convey our thoughts.
More importantly, if you find a particular member with whom you constantly disagree, simply hit the ignore button and we will (all) find the forum a much more enjoyable experience, as is the intent of PM to begin with. Give it a try, I'm pretty sure everyone concerned will have a more enjoyable experience and continue to contribute/benefit from others valuable observations as well, while helping to make PM a better place to be.
(My brief recap, having had the benefit of Charm School many years ago.....in a nutshell, let's all learn to say, "Isn't that incredible?", rather than "Bull S***!")