Quote:
The relatively small size of the membership has helped a lot.

I think this is part of the key. The other part being that it's also a fairly mature small group. Not just that the BBS itself has been around for a while, but I get the impression that most of the (contributing/founding) members have been involved in online communities long before this BBS showed up, and remember having to read basic netiquette guidelines before they were ever allowed an account that allowed interaction with other people. They set the community standard, and those folks who haven't been around quite so long have, thankfully, followed suit (though sometimes with a little prodding).

To more directly answer Cris' question, though, it's pretty much just like everyone else has been saying. I think I really just do things the way I do because that's what I want to see others do, and, if I'm not going to do it, then why should I expect other people to do it?

I don't worry so much about how my personality comes across -- my goal is just to communicate as effectively and politely as possible. Being able to accomplish that is the best way to let my personality be seen, IMHO, because people can focus on what I write, instead of pre-judging me as an idiot who can't grasp basic concepts like paragraphs, or worse, as an asshole who thinks that everyone will take the time to decipher what I wrote, regardless of how little effort I put into writing down my thoughts coherently, because my ego tells me I'm just that important to you all

Cheers,

Edit: fixed some mis-matched pronouns.