Quite different from the BBS Circles I was part of. They required you to use your real name on the forums ("conferences"). If a BBS was discovered not to enforce that rule, they would be kicked out of the network.
It was very civil.
Sure, there were those boards, but they were mainly for tech support or associated with a school or something like that. The boards I hung out on had far more relaxed rules.
No - they were just general purpose boards. They just had strict rules on behavior (well behaved flame wars, etc). I was on them before I was on USENET, and in comparison, USENET really sucked with its relative lawlessness.
The "enforce the rules or your whole BBS will be sanctioned" was extremely effective in producing a civil (but not boring) environment.
In person BBS Parties and later IRC Channel Parties were full of the greatest and most bizarre mix of people I have ever come across with a common interest. That's probably because with just the screen name and no avatar or graphics or profile info or anything, nobody divided into their usual social groups.