I used to be on ax all the time, but with the rise in trolls I have been posting less and less. There is no point in arguing the point with some nameless. And thats not anything to do ego or 'me being right'....so what if someone has a different opinion to you. If you know your own mind, and you know yourself, you dont have to justify it to other people.

Ax is good for publicity.
Over-publicity and spamming pisses people off.
Ax is not a place to discuss personal problems or aire overly-personal views.
Dont type anything that you wouldnt say to someones face. (I think this is where the 'thuggish' quote may come from).
The written word is very precise and lacks tone, pitch and volume (as well as body language), so is very easy to mis-understand.
A good filter could be for a pop-up to come up before posting, saying something like:
"If someone else was to use this post as a quote of my personality and professionalism to a potential employer, or on a CV, would I be happy with it?"

If all conversations were discussed in a calm rational manner, then it may be more constructive, but I know some people who like it when passions are raised and it all kicks off. The higher you climb up the 'emotional ladder' the further you get away from rationality.

I agree, it would be good if ax could link to facebook accounts and IP addresses, to make it harder to create fake acounts and the use of proxys.