Before you start to rewrite the world on facebook - it might be an interesting learning experience to sit down and read your comments as though you were someone else reading them...
- someone who doesn't know you
- someone who is not invested in liking or disliking you or your opinions
- someone who is open to hearing from new people, but perhaps appreciates a sense of humour and dislikes arrogance and criticism...
- do you come across as someone who came into a new group of people gently, working out the dynamics of those already there, and saying hello
- do you come across as someone who stormed in - pasted up your opinion and then got cross with those who didn't agree with you...
- do you come across as sensitive / gentle / willing to share and willing to learn
- do you come across as knowing it all / trying to be clever / bit 'smart' about things / etc.
see what view others might have of you - I would guess it might be different from your own view of yourself...
I never understand people who join an online community in such an abrupt manner - tell everyone else that they are wrong and expect them to change - in real life would you join an established group of people (lets say a sports club) and instantly start to change things with no reference to the club owner / committee / members? If you would - wow! But most people wouldn't, so why do it online?
good luck with your crusades - this forum is neither slow nor struggling - it has a nice gentle pace of posts which are primarily focused and interesting - there are many busier forums with a load of rubbish being posted...
it has nothing to do with insiders or outsiders - I have met only a couple of people from this forum - universally charming and pleasant to spend time with - there has never in my experience been any us / them online or in real life... There is of course no collective 'you' to want or not want opinions - there is simply a forum on which various people post their opinion - however most people are perhaps a little bit more self-aware around how they do it - and don't storm in and create quite so much disturbance.
you have had two threads where you set out to stir - there is a name for it online - it is called trolling - and it is universally unpopular - with both threads there would have been easy gentle and pleasant ways to have started debates in those areas without it coming across as smug and arrogant...
fortunately I think the modern forward looking people (and some of the best drivers in the country) are already on this forum, so I will stay and learn from them - good luck with your approach
Alasdair