I wrote on the DW2 thread about how this has been helping me through a very bleak time. It gives me focus, and allows me to lose myself in something that, for all it occupies my mind, doesn't really matter at all. I've put thousands of hours into this and all of them have been better hours than if I was stuck with my own thoughts.
But I also wanted to say something about the positivity of the thread, and treating staff fairly. Because, yes, they are just people, going to work, doing their job, and there's far too much on this forum which reflects a wider climate of angry over-entitlement (I could go off about politics with that, but this isn't the place).
Don't get me wrong, I know there are a lot of people out there highlighting bugs or making suggestions or asking for greater transparency/communication in a reasonable and considered manner; that's at least part of what the forums are for, and it's a necessary and valuable thing. But we all know there's a lot which crosses that line and keeps running far into the distance. Meanspiritedness and spite for sake of it, as if the whole universe (both the game one and the real one) revolves around the commenter.
And for what? If you're unhappy about the direction the game's going, the people making those decisions aren't going to be the community managers. Nor are they the ordinary devs working hard to put food on their tables - and let's be honest, game development is hardly renowned as an industry for the easy happy life. If you're being rude, that attitude is going no further than a bunch of people who don't have any power to fix anything. You're just being a **** for nothing.