Originally Posted by The Composer
...This also drives people to reply where someone seems to share their opinion, or to try and 'enlighten' anyone who disagrees. It's also perfectly human to be defensive about one's opinions, and sometimes fall victim to perceiving an opposing voice as an attack or dismissal, and some people indeed quite literally do this, in either direction.

The point I'm ultimately trying to make is, online forums has the odds stacked against it of often being dominated by variants of criticism or "negativity", often because it's the most passionate fans that in their own way just want something they love to be even more loveable, somewhere deep down, even though others may perceive them as haters.

I want to focus on Larian forums specifically, to "win an argument" here, in the only way that matters in the end of the day imo, is to influence the developers. Most people get stuck in interpersonal squabble instead of focusing on what matters; Making the developer want to read, instead of dismiss it as "angry irrational people". ...
I feel like this take is de-emphasizing something critical: forum discussion and arguments about ideas can change minds, help generate new ideas, and/or tangent into related but also important topics. Challenging ideas (through negativity/critique) can be very useful for figuring out what's important and refining our own ideas. At the very least, forum arguments will give Larian a broad view of many reasons for/against certain mechanics.

On this forum, we are (ideally) both trying to provide feedback to Larian but also trying to convince others of our viewpoints. Why? Because then our viewpoints will have more support=more forum posts agreeing with said idea=more likely for Larian to make changes. Personally, I've had my mind changed on a few topics through discussions/arguments, or at the very least was able to see something in a different light.

Negativity by itself isn't bad, as critique of things is the ~only way they improve. The problem is when that negativity is unconstructive or it's directed toward other posters instead of the game.