> Site X begins to exhaust natural topics of conversation. Denizens of more than 3 months standing become sick of 100th "What does Site X think about AlphaGamma

> Site X begins to exhaust natural topics of conversation. Denizens of more than 3 months standing become sick of 100th "What does Site X think about AlphaGamma?" post and begin to slap down newbies. This implies it's hostility to "old hat discussions" that have already been around the block that people are worried about. I don't think that's primarily it. The civility levels have slipped a lot... this place used to be as civil and friendly as meeting a bunch of people at a dinner party where everyone admires the host. Still super-civil compared to the rest of the internet, but the levels have come down a lot. Raw outrage, profanity, and outright insults used to get downvoted to oblivion even if people agreed with the general argument the commentor was making. Rudeness really wasn't tolerated, so new members learned quickly that you had to think for a minute longer before replying. It's still a great site, but it's not elitism and reminiscing that the old guard is scared of. It's comment quality slipping to rest-of-internet level.