I do concur that things seem much more intense, and, at times, less civil, than 3 plus years ago, when I first joined. All I can say is that people post whatever they do, and the mods have the discretion to remove it. However, I have a bit of advice that I'm sure we all know, but has worked for me. The good old ignore button.
If someone is either attacking me, or making negative, or combative, posts in general, I simply edit my ignore list, and dont look at their posts. A wise forum member advised me to do this a couple of years ago, when a couple of idiots were attacking every thread and post I made. Trust me, guys, and girls, it does work, at least it does for me. While I can see the temptation to want to look at, and respond to the negativity, to me, those who post such things just arent worth the time. I dont know if the good folks who posted in this thread agree with me, but it has been a sound piece of advice that has worked for me over the last couple of years.
Mitch