I extend that out to uniforms and titles as well... Being a soldier or a pastor or a mayor doesn't make you worthy of my respect on a personal level.

For example, people who whine incessantly about a few atheists criticizing religion, in one lone little group on one site on the internet, aren't likely to earn my respect. This is true regardless of whether the whiner in question is a theist or an atheist.

I've been in many groups like this over the years, and it's like the same people have been in all of them. Same arguments, same flimsy logic, same attitudes. On both sides, really. Sometimes, there can be good discussions, but you have to dig through a lot of nonsense to find them. Often, threads deteriorate into interminable subthreads that go nowhere at all. I just ignore those, generally.

I participate only for the actual discussions that take place on an open and friendly basis. The rest, I just ignore, for the most part. Often, the most prolific number of replies in threads come from the least capable debaters. I just skip over that stuff. It has nothing to do with the main subject in most cases, anyhow.

There's a week-old thread I started that is mostly full of deeply embedded subthreads. It long ago stopped being interesting. If you only look at the first three levels of subthreads, it's still an interesting discussion, but when you go any deeper, it deteriorates into mindless arguments. Who has time for that? Still, though, the endless subthreads keep kicking it up to the top of the thread list. Weird...

Those that make up their own rules and whine incessantly when they aren't followed reminds me of bratty kids that didn't get enough attention from their parents growing up. They whine about their victimization while never taking responsibility for their own behavior.