Do you care about your reputation in the forum community? I try to be relatively "nice" whenever I have the chance, but sometimes my irritations and erratic personality shines through. For example, whenever I talk about how I like a video-game, and somebody responds, "That game is sheeeiiit!" I will probably smart-off to him. "Well, thanks, guy that isn't capable of formulating much in the way of a coherent sentence, however, I don't actually see your evidence of this."
Yes, it's mean, but there is so many people in this world that won't listen to other people's observations, however, at the same time, there's a lot of people that don't use common sense or have an opinion that I take offense to. I wouldn't have had a problem if he would have said, "I didn't like that game," or something like that, but instead, what I like is SHEEEIIT!
"Gays are all going to Hell, the Bible says!" - Someone
"The Bible also glamorizes slavery and is filled with tons of misogynistic garbage!" - Me
Granted, I don't have a problem with religious beliefs, but can't stand when someone condemn others to Hell, or say hateful and mean-spirited garbage like that. Some might be offended by things like that, but I can also prove to them my statement, so it's not like I am being hateful for being hateful. I also have the mind-set that anybody who says something better have the means to back it up, I can't stand whenever somebody tells me, "Well, that's just how I see it," when they have given no information on their opinion, because it's a discussion board, and I want them to educate on WHY they feel that way. Maybe they'll make me look at things in a different light, maybe I'll do the same for them, or maybe we'll bicker night and day about it and get nowhere, but at least there was the thrill of a discussion.
So, yeah, I can be very strong in my beliefs and I can be a smart-ass, but I'd like to think at the end of the day, people will be able to see the honest principles that I have created for myself, I try to understand opinions (when they're sensible, not like, "Hey, let's go take over Eastern Europe," said Hitler) and I try to be "good" by at least some definitions of the word. If they don't like me, I can't really say that I care, at least, not at this point.