Sadly it seems that as soon as a new platform emerges there is an inevitable drive towards the anger, hatred and plain trolling that plagues most of the internet.

It's one of the reasons I started taking breaks from places like Reddit and Bitcointalk. I found the more I used them continuously the more I found myself succumbing to the culture and becoming more angry, argumentative and just plain nasty myself.

It seems that this is an issue of internet culture and if it is sufficiently toxic then it has a tendency to spread - pulling everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

Luckily Steemit has been mostly a positive place but I don't think we can be too surprised by the gradual shift.

I'm not saying people should just always agree with each other and never be honest - that is just as bad but it takes very little to take a few deep breaths and make arguments in a rational and level headed manner.

They are much more powerful that way and you will win people over.

Also if you overstep the mark and do end up being rude or overly harsh you can always apologise and admit to being wrong.

It takes guts to do that and people will respect you more for it.