I agree that the primary issue is that real estate has gotten kind of boring. It used to be this huge crazy bubble with totally out-of-whack prices and people doing and saying all kinds of nutty things. Now prices are much less out of whack, and the whole market is based more on govt policy than on economic fundamentals. The resulting quagmire is just not all that interesting to analyze or discuss, at least in comparison.
As far as “apocalyptic” posts, I don’t find them particularly compelling in their analysis, but it’s not the kind of thing I would delete. If people want to discuss that stuff, and they are being nice about it, that’s ok by me. And even the non-apocalyptically inclined can get something out of them, as often, the more optimistic (or less gloomy) among pigg posters often make counterpoints and a decent discussion results.
But that said I have definitely abandoned my former policy of benign(?) neglect towards name-calling, political flame wars, and general nastiness. Hopefully that will help.