I read that linked thread just now expecting some drama, but gotta say IMHO on the whole it was pretty respectful to the OP. There were a couple posters sniping at each other that the mods shut down (see the coronavirus thread for real sniping), but in general the tone was appreciative of the OP.
Some people expressed the opinion that without more detail the thread had pretty much gone as far as it could go, but they weren’t rude about it, just stating their opinions.
These forums are for the free exchange of ideas, and the OP in that linked thread didn’t want it to go in a certain direction. But the adage “welcome to the internet” applies there - once you start a thread it’s pretty much out of your control. You can already see that this thread might drift into college costs instead of etiquette, for example. For cases where you want control of the narrative, a blog is a better venue.
For that OP and those who did find some of the posts in that thread offensive, I want to point out that there’s an ignore option for posters you don’t like. I mean that sincerely, not blithely - I use the option and it’s made my CC experience more enjoyable. That thread might’ve continued if the OP had simply started ignoring posters whose responses he didn’t like.