I must admit... I have lost a lot of faith in the power of online 'conversation'.
I used to see it in terms, not dissimilar to that DS9 episode where Nog talks about the Great Material Continuum - You dip into other people's ideas and you let them carry you along.
I feel that the late '10s really put an end to that as it seems like sharing ideas ends with you getting yelled at by people who either can' t understand or have a vested interest in not understanding.
