From what I've observed, game hype threads seem to generate the highest amount of drama and arguments by far. This usually comes down to people having different opinions about something and not being able to accept that other people have a different opinion than their own. Unlike a lot of other hobbies, there is a really wide range of people coming from all sorts of different professions and backgrounds, and that can sometimes cause some disparity.

As a result of some of the discord in hype threads, that tends to generate the most amount of criticism about the forums, even though those hype threads are only a small piece of the forum as a whole. There are many other areas the forums beyond just that one corner where many conversations and discussions take place pretty much drama-free.

When participating on a discussion forum, you generally get out what you put into it. I like to think that pinball is about bringing people together who share a common interest/hobby. So, I usually try to approach discussions in that way. So, my forum experience generally tends to be positive.

Luckily, there are a couple tools here to help tailor your forum experience to your own personal preferences. You can put other members on ignore to you never have to see what they post. You can drain a topic and never have to see it again. You can hide sub-forums from the front page. You can use the grid view on the main forum page to help highlight the forum sections that you want to see, and hide the areas that you don't want to see. You can hide downvotes from view.