Since “wildly vehement disagreements” are on my mind, here is the most brutal forum fight I ever witnessed, and I will try to present it with as little judgment as possible:
It was Fametracker, maybe 2003 or so. A discussion came up somehow: what do you do with your trash after seeing a movie in the theater? You know, popcorn buckets, candy boxes, soda cups, used napkins?
Two sides emerged, and each side felt that they were obviously, unquestionably, self-evidently right:
1) You leave your trash in your seat because they pay employees to pick it up for you
2) You throw away your own trash because you are capable of doing so (if you are)
That was it. I have NEVER seen such vitriol. The entire userbase got involved and people probably got banned over it. There seemed to be some kind of regional breakdown; whichever side you argued for, it was something that EVERYONE around you did, you had grown up in the obvious rightness of doing it, and it was OFFENSIVE to suggest doing otherwise. I am sure you are staring at this going, “You… you obviously [XYZ]?” However certain you feel about that, there were people on that forum (and maybe even here!) who were exactly as certain of the opposite.