Thank you for sharing your story. I am what one would call a lurker but have recently decided to start participating directly too. Your post also gives me a lot of motivation to do that.

I think one of the reasons of the positive energy in this community is because it's strict rules on trolling. If one doesn't get to see low effort replies, sarcastic comments etc, then it reduces the chances of them having a bad experience. Hence, resulting in an net positive vibe in the whole forum. Just my two cents!