That’s only for when you type the letter T, silly.
Your profile says you have 90 posts. Give it time!
Too soon!
Hi, Aspenglow. How are ya?
I know, I’m a member there, with the same username as here. 
You could be our double agent.
And remember - posture, posture, posture.
callander, I’ve had a similar but, slightly different feeling from the ol’ board.
I sometimes make what are obviously innocuous statements of opinion or fact (or so they seem to me), and end up in shrill arguments over them where I feel like I’m the jerk for having to explain why it’s that way. It’s like dinner at home when I was growing up.
Come to think of it, that might be some deep-seated psychological reason that is the root of why I keep posting now. My wife was completely shocked by the level of discourse that was allowed at my parents’ dinner table when she and I were dating. If my posts kept being ignored like they were in the beginning (Hey Aspenglow, just say what you really think or feel, and you’ll get argued with! Trust me!), I would have stopped. But someone saw fit to quote me, or compliment me, or argue with me eventually. So I stuck around.
I’m still very careful at what I post around here. Nasty, worthless wars of opinion are easy to come by and hard to end. I probably dump more posts than I complete, and we’re probably all the better for it. By some obvious error, I still haven’t been pitted, or warned. I’ve certainly been snarky or stupid enough to have one or both in my time here.
In short, I think that you guys are sweet. :*
Hi Scabpicker.
Pleasure to meet you here at the Dope. I have been thinking about it, one thing I have noticed, and at times the obvious is easily missed, (by me) is that I have been looking at the forest and have been missing the trees here. So I am going to wipe the crude off my lenses and look again.
Thanks to all of you here for participating, appreciate it. And have a groovy day.
Well Scabpicker, sadly it looks like your manners are better than mine, cuz I think a moderator may have given me a warning for not playing by the rules in debates.
Live and learn.
It looks like Tomndeb gave a mod note in that thread. It was a note to dial it back. Mod notes aren’t warnings and don’t go on your record, but you might want to take heed and be aware of what he said. In my observation, the mods do make it clear when they issue a warning. They will say “warning issued” for whatever the applicable offense is. But they only give warnings for serious offenses and repeat offenders. They prefer to be more lenient in most cases.
Hi Cochrane,
Good to know I was kind of bummed out, thanks for letting me know the difference, and I did make a note to self on debate rules, better read them again.
I can’t answer for anyone else, but I rarely check the Join Date of a poster UNTIL s/he posts something idiotic. Then I glance up and to the right and, oh, yeah, that 'splains it. Well, sometimes it’s 'splains it, sometimes the person is just an idiot. But more often they just haven’t quite learned the little things, like this board expects you to be able to cite your sources, not make more than two logical fallacies per post and create a coherent post with grammar and spelling largely intact. And if any of that is lacking, it’s more likely to be from a new poster than an old. (Although not exclusively, of course.) New posters who do those things either shape up or they leave in a huff or they’re escorted out as they flame out.
I don’t really think this board has politeness as such. It has civility, except when you cross certain pet peeves. Politeness would go a step further, and try not to get snippy when they get offended.
Now, that’s the board in general. There are plenty of polite posters, and plenty of conversations where the civility and politeness are indistinguishable.
IMO, all the issues the OP worries about are almost entirely unique to Great Debates. If you hang out there, you need some thick skin, and a desire to tussle with folks who like tussling. And you need to be able to marshal at least a few facts or at least factoids to back your opinions.
All of which sounds to me like way more aggravation than it’s worth, so you’ll find of my 7000 posts, approximately zero are in GD.
Stick to the happier forums and all will be well.
Oh, FFS! I’ve been here 14 years and I’m almost entirely ignored. Pointedly.
Did you say something?
Hey, don’t take your long-suffering frustrations out on ME. YOU’RE the one who’s still sticking around.
Hi, Green Bean! 
Thanks for the welcome!
Have you ever expressed any skepticism about global warming?