I should add, like many of us here I've been online since the pre-Internet days. I've been on many forums, and have been super moderator for a few. This is the best forum I've been on. Here's how it can be so much worse elsewhere;
1. Moderators are heavy handed and have obvious biases against certain people. The smart (car) forum was just so awful about this.
2. Forums are little dictatorships, and some mods are quick to ban for the most innocuous disagreement, or the breaking totally unreasonable rules. One forum I was on prevented any mention of the word 'gun' even in the off-topic section. Another discriminated against non-believers openly (off-topic section) but they left pro-religion posts unmolested. Basically, one side could say whatever they wanted, but the opposition was censored. I no longer do off-topic on forums though and prefer to stick to the forum's focus. I save my personal opinions for FB, Reddit, Quora, etc.
3. Another forum had very low standards of writing from its members, but the mods were partially illiterate too and never fixed anything, ever. So, the 'curb appeal' of the forum was just horrid with misspelled thread titles all over the place. Some sites just reek of anti-intellectualism. This site is the opposite of that.
4. Another forum had jerks running it, so all of the leadership jerkiness trickled down to almost every user. Again, this same forum had a very low standard of intelligence or thoughtfulness. This was two motorcycle forums with the dumbest userbases I'd ever seen. Other motorcycle forums I was on (and moderated) were much better and more tightly-knit.
5. Other forums would simply lock threads the minute there was the slightest hint of disagreement. I think I hate this the most. It's one thing if the thread is totally off the rails but mods have to let adults work things out. They will generally work things out given enough time and space.
6. Some forums are SO hypersensitive that any opinion (based in truth or not) that offends the lowest common denominator gets deleted, censored, results in a ban, etc. These forums are useless. In real life, everyone goes through that 'sizing up' phase, especially if you're new to an established group. This is totally normal.
7. And yes if you can survive Reddit then this forum feels like Pleasantville.

Reddit is a good litmus test for skin thickness.
Anyhoot, this is a great forum. High average intelligence, healthy disagreements with real data, great writing generally that doesn't pain me to read, no strong political bent one way or another making anyone feel overtly unwelcome, awesome investor contributions and insights, good curb appeal, reasonably and diligently moderated but not OVER-moderated. Snark is minimal and flaming is pretty much non-existent.
Honestly, it's one of the best forums I've been on, ever. Here's to the Teslarati!