I disagree. Very very strongly. I think people are fascinating and the interactions of people are fascinating. I don't think 'name your favourite cover version' is remotely interesting.
i agree. other users disagree. that's fine.
one issue i think is that differing temperaments are perceived as reflecting some kind of moral character.
so some users love the forum really fast paced and conversational while others like it slow and considered with huge blocks of text. some like lots of in-jokes and familiarity, while others prefer it to be far more anonymous and ideas based. some people like feign ignorance while others like to pronounce their intellect.
none of those things are bad things and none of them (in theory) can't coexist. where it seems we run into problems is that some users of a particular temperament see the other set of users as bad.
i'm not saying i wasn't guilty of this. i honestly used to think people were being disingenuous about the things that offended them. i couldn't quite believe users were getting upset about the things that they were. i see now that i was wrong, but i'm not sure the same adjustment has happened with other users; they haven't gone "luke and party are a bit excitable and silly and just want to make sure everyone has a nice time". there's still all this talk about "misbehaviour", "stirring shit", etc.