Segway Chat is pretty mild both in terms of hostile environment and in moderation; seriously.
I've seen much worse internet bullying on other forums and the worst participants here are nothing to worry or get excited about. Besides which, this forum is moderated to, well, nearly "
Focus on the Family" standards. Argue all day and all night and it's still really nothing to get excited about. Although I will say that what would be considered simply an aside elsewhere here is sometimes laughable in the amount of umbrage some people can take away from it. Seriously folks, sometimes comments are, in fact, innocent and don't always have to be taken the "wrong way" simply for sake of argument.
There are as many reasons to join and participate in a forum as there are users. Each of us makes our own decisions to come and go. Nobody is forcing anyone to stay and people leaving on their own do so simply because whatever motivated them to be here in the first place is either not here or has been fulfilled.
Those leaving and writing emotion filled good bye letters, well, I'm no psychologist, but to me that's not a good bye letter; it's a cry for help. They still need something, but can't find it and unfortunately either pride or lack of vocabulary prevents them from asking in a way that would actually be useful.