He was more offensive, especially to some of the younger members.

And he was a twat.

I'm still not convinced it wasn't a joke by one of us.

(I'm even less convinced it wasn't you, actually!)

But Trig wasn't always quite that.

The time he posted a photo of his computer and of himself changed my view of him quite a lot.

He gave us an insight into his world that he hadn't ever done before. He became less of a troll and more human.

His presence alone promoted discussion amongst the rest of us on the topic of how he should be dealt with. To me, that alone meant he was a good thing.

Exactly, if he was willing to discuss his views (away from his "predictions") that would be great. It could be a slightly interesting discussion, or end up just being an anti-semitic rant (not necessarily a bad thing from a discussion point-of-view), but it would at least be slightly engaging. If he would go into detail about his predictions that would be even better. That's what I've wanted him to do since day 1, I'm genuinely interested in knowing why he's saying the things he is, where he's got his info, what is actually happening with the plates and volcanoes.

I tend to think we're a very odd lot. In one thread we can be throwing abuse at each other (as nasty as we can manage, which isn't very nasty at all :$ ) and in another thread at the same time we're agreeing and friendly.

This is the only forum I post on for discussion, but any others I've come across don't seem to manage the discussion/argument whilst also being friendly at the same time.

Me too

I particularly like when someone is pretty much calling someone a cunt in one thread then offering to help them in some way in another thread.

That might be stating the obvious of how we work on here but I like it. I'm not sure I've ever seen any people being able to separate one from the other in such close timescales. I know I personally hold grudges in the real world pretty easily. If someone annoys me I'm far less inclined to help them in any way, that doesn't seem to happen on here with me.