ParanoidObsessive posted... It's probably just the age difference. 15 years ago I'd ride any given debate straight to the end of the topic (and maybe even start a new one), and post like 10 times straight every time because I had so much to say the character limits wouldn't let it all fit in a single post (or two, or three...).
These days, my free time is more limited, my overall energy is much lower due to general fatigue, my patience is greatly depleted, and I've long since learned the lesson that you can't argue stupid people out of being stupid, so I mostly lose interest in arguments quickly. At least on PotD.
I'll generally check a given topic a few times, but once it's been a couple days or the topic has gotten way too large (which is generally a good sign that other people are arguing/shit-flinging in it), I tend to just stop bothering to read it. And once a topic gets bounced down to the bottom of my Active Message list (or onto the second page), it pretty much ceases to exist for me. Also not helped by the fact that I really only check the first two pages of topics on PotD these days.
The days of Wall O' Text POwnings are long, long gone. The last time I was able to have those sorts of prolonged debates and stick to them was in the Geek topics, and now that they've basically died the long debates have gone with them.
That feels real familiar.
Not a comment against adjl, they're great.