this 'rant' reminded me of a short piece in New Scientist a short while ago discussing why on line threads tend to get abusive more often than face to face conversations.
If you are interested it can be seen here... http://www.newscientist.com/blog/lastword/2008/07/net-rage.html
btw.
Wholehartedly agree, treat others as you would like to be treated.
Assumption is the mother of all F***ups