Well I'm new here but I can put 2 cents... As far as online communities go, this is a true GEM. I used to be admin on a very cool peer-review music network, we had thousands of users, MILLIONS of free songs anybody could download... Excellent vibe, little elitism, you could actually get to know people in there.
Since that site went down, I've been looking for something even close to that. THIS place is remarkably similar to me. It's organic, personal. People like to get close and you see that they do. And all of that is a deep compliment to RIU. To me the fact that it is indeed a cannabis forum is secondary, as frigging AWESOME as that is, it's not why I decided to come say a few words every now and then. This is a great crowd.
I can see what people mean with the shitty vibes here and there. It's a real shame it really is, but I guess people the world over are pretty tense at the moment, most of our governments have been dealing us a raw deal, tons of us don't have work, it's emotional times indeed. It's just life reflecting on the community, you can see it MUCH more pronounced on places like Facecooked and Twitt(s)e(R)Us. Places like that are full-on war-zones.
It's cool here. Especially Cannabis Cafe is very chilled. The grow forums are a bit wild, but before pitching in there I am planning my approach to any aggression or other such silliness. My natural response is to come back with some creative little gentle insult, but I am thinking that instead of fuel to the fire I'll do ANNOYING stuff like just repeat the post parrot style, or write my responses backwards or leave out all vowels. That way I'll have FUN with it.
Everything is about how you approach it I guess. But as a new guy, this place is really nice.