I love Costa Rica, and enjoy posting.
I also am highly unlikely to travel to Thailand, or the PI, yet I find those reports interesting - perhaps the best advice was posted in that if you don't like a particular forum (for example you will seldom see me in the Trip Report section in Costa Rica; I appreciate the enthusium by newbi's but can't enjoy the dumb mistakes some make that could be avoided by simply doing some reading, research, and the use of common sense) don't read it.
Regarding the posts about Colombia, I think some object to the theme "well CR sucks, and Colombia is so much better" Well guess what - those who feel that way may be correct, but I can see how it can irritate some. I don't find the Colombia posts objectionable.
If you find a forum objectionable, or it has little to no relevance to your daily life, don't read it; problem solved. (I personally could care less about gambling, or the perpetual tourism issues, but realize its important to some, and the poster has a right to put it on the board - its my decision to read it or ignore it)
As to the board in general, it seems the "drive by" post has become an art form - by this I mean terse, nasty, one or two line posts that add nothing. I was going to name names, but that's counterproductive.
In the interest of total honesty, I realize some don't like my posting style, and while the vast majority of my posts are designed to convey information developed over 15 years of travel to Costa Rica, I fully concede some don't like or don't get my sense of humor (I guess I lived in NY too long!)
As I've posted before, I don't think the "old board" was really better, but you did find more give and take, and good natured ball busting - that has been largely replace by the drive by post. Many of us only know each other by posts and often we are totally different people in person
