Time to lay down arms?

We're all members of a tiny, niche community. We have 9225 members, at the time of this post; and naturally fewer are active at any given time. Whatever your reasons for joining our group, I ask you to hear me out for a few paragraphs.

Mass Effect: Andromeda proved to be a pretty divisive game. Opinions range from it being an abomination to it being the best game of the series. Being opinions, each of the entire gamut is valid. We've been debating our opinions on its strengths and weaknesses for over 8 months. This particular forum has become a war zone between the "Apologists" and the "Haters". Both of those labels are shortsighted, unimaginative and unfair. It's perfectly reasonable that some can hate this game. It's also completely reasonable that others will love it.

What isn't all that reasonable is the pervasive failure to listen amongst our community. The arguments --those that go way beyond the expected debates of an online community- are no longer even limited to MEA. I see pervasive rude behavior all around. I see name-calling. I see passive aggressive posting. Most of all, I see a failure to listen to others and respectfully acknowledge that opinions differing from our own are valid. I've read valid posts on each side of every argument. If you think your opinion is the only correct opinion, take a moment and ponder how such a narrow approach would serve you in the real world.

I ask each of us-- the BSN is an us-- Is it time to lay down arms, before the constant bickering becomes the permanent status quo of our BSN community? Can YOU try to be more respectful, less easily provoked, and more willing to agree to disagree? Only you know why you visit this forum. If it's only to bicker and piss off others, that's sad, but it is your right. I suspect that some have simply fallen into the habit because they feel that they aren't or weren't being heard.

I'm sure this will get a variety of responses. "TL/DR". "Who the hell is the preachy twit?" "It is the Internet, bro. Deal with it." "The oBSN was always like this." I get it. I hope some of you will give it some thought, though. There are a lot of bright, engaging people here with good ideas to share. I think if we each afforded our fellow members a bit more respect, our little community would be a better place with better discussions.

I chose to post this in the Mass Effect General Discussion precisely because this is the forum most affected by the discord. I understand if the moderators judge it to be off-topic; but I feel that nothing could be more relevant to this forum at this time. I hope it doesn't get shuffled into an out of sight corner.

If you've made it this far, thanks for giving me a moment of your time. Despite the present mood of the forums, this is still my favorite group of people on the internet. Thanks for giving me a place to hangout and discuss just about anything with total strangers who share my interests.