I have thought about this for several days. I am a relative new comer to this newsgroup, but IIRC, there was a number of regulars who left before I signed on. I have no earthly idea what was behind that. That is history anyway.
My original OT posting about the pendulum clock on the Moon resulted in an amazing, to me, wealth of highly technical information from woodworkers here. That made it very clear to me that there are some very intelligent men and women on this site posting on topics one might never think of. They are woodworkers, of sorts, and had or have another primary profession. I had a ball reading the back and forth banter on details of Lunar gravity, 3rd order affects, and other semi-related and a very few unrelated items. None of those who replied seemed to get P.O.ed at another.
I learned a lot and a lot of the details I did not understand. I consider myself a net gainer for having posted the OT to begin with. None of any of that involved wood or woodworking tools or techniques. None of the replies that I recall ever used vulgar words. There was no need to do so. Gentlemen and ladies do not use such words in public. For some happy reason, the trolls never showed up AFAICT.
As for any of you who seem to detest OT postings and replies thereto, it would appear that you/they have two viable options:
Option 1. Never read an OT posting [ full stop ] Option 2. Read them and do not reply [ full stop ]
Blast away. This is still a free country.
Hoyt W. and Yes I vote Republican !