I first really learned to program on an LP-Mud that was in the early to middle stages of development. We had lots of live interactions that went just fine, but

I first really learned to program on an LP-Mud that was in the early to middle stages of development. We had lots of live interactions that went just fine, but our message board conversations were often teetering on the brink of flame wars. The exact same handful of people, usually around five or so, talking about the same subjects, but with really different results. So there's something about the forum or message board format that is dangerous, I think. With live chat, of course, misunderstandings surface faster so you can correct or elaborate as needed, but I don't think that's the whole story. I think that somehow people read tone into the messages that isn't there. I'm not sure exactly why. Over-aggressive pattern matching maybe. You get an idea in your head around the first or second sentence and then fit the rest to that idea.