I would guess that well functioning boards; able to weather the vagaries of people's temperaments; are far and few between. and to find more than a couple of places like that where
you feel comfortable, would be a blessing. I spend time on a couple of different forums, AWAD being one. the other is a 3D graphics forum, which I mostly check because I am a long-time member and moderator there, though my time invested in 3D has dwindled to nearly null. it is an amazing forum, though; very polite, and extremely helpful, and by most accounts, fairly unique in the 3D world. artistic boards can be very nasty. I also, like max, spend a bit of time, on computer boards, mac of course.
though, like the 3d, that comes and goes. there are others that I infrequent<e>, namely Wil Wheaton(of Star Trek fame) has an interesting set of folks, and some that I would have to check my bookmarks to find. I have set up my own forums, on my site, which is mostly family, and a couple of friends. my church has a forum which I started(I'm the webmaster), but it is a struggle to keep it afloat. a small church, with web challenged folks, makes for a tough row to hoe...
I should probably re-read all of this, but oh well...
