Personal affirmation of what you posted: I lurked on FR for over a year before I registered and made my first post. The reason for my reluctance was feeling intimidated by the volume of posts that were so literate, articulate and well-informed. However, in defense of FR, this is a trend I see all over the internet: a diminishing ability to express oneself in written form.
When you get to know us, you'll discover we are also bright, nice-looking and clean. LOL!
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You got that right.
Just trying to read the comments to random news articles-—say, something on football-—is excruciating. There is no grammar. There are no sentences. There seem to be no complete or organized thoughts that the “writer” is attempting to articulate. The first “point” is always profanity and personal insult-—among people who, unlike in a community such as FR, have no history at all with the person they are insulting.
I, for one, quickly decide to not even go there. Let the illiterates and vulgar spew among themselves. However, that then creates a vicious cycle. Those who can reason and articulate reasoning, don’t. Thus discouraging others would can reason and articulate reasoning from joining the discussion as well.
Sometimes I wonder if we ought not to take it as our civic duty to regularly provide rational, well-articulated comments “out there” just to try to keep that standard alive.