&quot;There&#x27;s a sort of Gresham&#x27;s Law of conversations. If a conversation reaches a certain level of incivility, the more thoughtful people start to leave.&quot;<p>If there are equations that describe the net, since the mid-1980s, this is one of them.<p>A lot of the commentary here is about &quot;shyness&quot; or &quot;introversion,&quot; which, I don&#x27;t know J.L.<p>But I think the point of PG&#x27;s Gresham comment is it&#x27;s not only personality.  Analogy: What professor of physics is going to wade into the hyper-bullshit environment of a typical online physics &quot;discussion?&quot; As soon as they see the word &quot;photon&quot; or &quot;rest mass&quot; I&#x27;m sure they run for the hills. Introvert or extrovert, it&#x27;s a waste of time. Just get out in one piece before it gets any worse.<p>It&#x27;s a trap!