What I find interesting is that I typically fall in with one team or another (I mean we all do), but if I step in on a thread later in the game, I don't really understand what they are arguing about because they are neck-deep on a particular.
A particular that is so minute, I suspect most members of each team wouldn't go to bat for it as individuals, but because they're at the bottom of the seventh, they'll keep playing.
If you step in not knowing the names, you would be utterly lost as to what is going on, because the argument bears so little resemblance to the original post. This is why courts, formalized debates, and public meetings have discussion parameters.
Really if there is anything I find vexing about the BDF, it's that. People getting a little mean or immature is to be expected even among the elect, unhappily. But I would be more likely to participate if things stayed on topic and didn't mutate after page one or two.
LOL! They really put in work, didn't they?
But really though, I see the same groups of people argue against each other and I can predict who's going to like what, and no sooner than one person posts a wall of text do the others on their "team" like the post. And I'm like, "I just KNOW you guys didn't read that yay-long post all the way through before you liked it. You just like that person, dislike the opposition, or both."
Maybe people won't be as petty as I'm predicting with a dislike button, but...I can't say it would surprise me.