As long as people keep giving the excuse "Oh well, what are you going to do?", the problem will continue. On another site that I am on, firearms related, we have several people that specialize in ****stirring rudeness. What I do now, when they get really bad, is call them out. I post that their comments are unacceptable and unwarranted, and then, frequently, other posters will chime in, calling the culprit out in a civilized way. It is called "self-policing" and it works more often than you would think. Some hardcore tools won't learn, but many get the message, some just move on to sites where this behaviour is tolerated. Personally, if I had my own site, moderators would be encouraged to give time outs to posters who repeatedly behave this way. Ignoring bad behaviour is no answer...ever! I have seen too many knowlegable, helpful people
end up leaving and leaving a void, because of this rude minority. Anyone who defends this behavior is also part of the problem. To paraphrase an old saying "Evil can only flourish, if good men stand by and do nothing".