That's a shame, but that's happening on every forum. I don't remember having been on any relatively large forum that did not have private groups badmouthing specific people, and other groups bashing said groups, spies in all groups, etc. That's always like that. There are always a percentage of aggressive cowards. I'm younger than you, but still, I met that for the first time in the very beginning of ICQ. I remember when it got an option for more than two people to speak, my first moderation job became all the sudden way more difficult.
What I find particularily problematic and unusual on this forum is the percentage of people refusing discussion. It's a forum, but too many people are only there to state their opinion like if it was a fact and leave or even flag when someone is giving a different opinion.
That's where I don't get this forum. Usually, these private groups complaining about forum users happen because people need to get a frustration out, that they could not express on the forum. But here, it does not seem that it's the people who get shut up/ mistreated on the forum who complain, but rather the ones who are already responsible for the bad atmosphere. Disgusting, but still, we can't do much about it, so I would say, ignore and just take from that that you are more brave than these people.
This is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but...I'm not sure those things count as 'rot in the forum'. If anything, that's 'rot in the discord, accompanied by occasional disturbances in the forum'.
As people have said many times before, this is a relatively calm and uneventful place for an internet forum (the replies so far in this thread only reinforce my point...anywhere else, the discord 'backstabbers' would already be here defending themselves and causing a riot).
Anyway, I have a sharp eye for conflict, and even I have to agree that this place is * unnaturally * peaceful. Instances of true unrest and anger are few and far between, and usually limited to the actions of one relatively unknown person (which is why they're often simply called 'trolls' in later discussions about their behavior).
And then, REAL disagreements between known forumers usually resolve themselves or just fizzle out into obscurity. Back in my early days on a different forum, you knew who hated who and how many enemies you'd made; that kind of stuff was obvious. But here, despite what people believe they've done to others, it's hard to tell whether there are any true vendettas going at all. =/
Yes, but it's peaceful because we cannot discuss things. All the threads that get a bit interesting because of actual exchange of opinion are getting closed as soon as there is one or 2 problematic messages, even if all the other ones are fine and leading to an healthy discussion.
That's not an healthy way to get peace.
Now, I do understand it's a difficult balance to obtain. I only can think of two or three examples of relatively large forums that kept a good balance between peacefulness and freedom of speech for years in my 25 years using forums. And honestly it's becoming harder and harder, with forum users tolerating less and less divergent opinions. I must sound like an old idiot but well... it does seems to be a trend, doesnt it?
i go away for like five minutes... what happened here?? im presuming some posts disappered (asking purely bc i wanna keep up w the drama)
I understand that; I've even seen it happen...but on the other hand, I've gone out of my way to present controversial subjects and even to be antagonistic at times, and I haven't found myself 'silenced' yet. If this forum were as anti-free-speech as all that, I would think I would have been banned months ago (although I won't deny that it's a fear of mine...in the back of my mind... 6v6; ).
Maybe I'm just the exception to the rule. '_' Maybe I'm not as much of a rabble-rouser as I imagine. ^^ But I do think, despite how restrictive this forum is many ways, there is precedence for tolerance and diversity of ideas, and potential for growth in both areas. But, as with all things, change will come slowly...
I think that's another issue that is applicable to this particular forum. Posts are hidden once they're flagged twice so it's pretty easy for 2 like-minded people to disrupt casual exchanges. I think some people can be too quick to flag too. For me, if I don't like what's being said, I'll just scroll past it, unless there are obvious derogatory slurs and such being slung.
Personally all of the posts I've ever flagged were just from spam bots.
I feel there has been a lot of tolerance on this forum and it's great. There was only one time I can say without a doubt there was zero tolerance was when someone interrupted everyone's debate to toss out all her anger she had on a subject that had been building up for sometime and even admittedly she said from other forums and took it out on people on this forum. Even going as far as saying we had to follow her specific set of rules in order to properly dislike the subject we were debating.
For starters, you are never too old to ever quit anything you love. I’m glad we have such a vast array of people from different places, ages, and walks of life.
It’s the people who are bitching behind the scenes that hold something bitter in themselves, and hopefully they can sort it out.
I hope you don’t leave the community.
That's what's quite perverse in this case: there are two potential layers of censorship. I don't think the forum management or the forum guidelines are against freedom of speech. It's some users that makes it that way. It's user-based censorship, but made possible by a too sensitive flagging system (and I remember a staff member saying they are aware of that too great sensitivity of the flagging system, but it was for bot/troll control). So it's the users misusing the system, not a voluntary censorship by the site.
Also, there is a the too great acceptance of bullying from a few, by the rest of the forum. I'm surprised how many people deny that it's going on. There can, however, be discussion on how big the problem is, or how organized the bullying is.
So, you can start as many controversial topics you want, as long as it's not clearly with bad intentions, the subjects are not closed by mods/staff. But they get closed by users further down. Not because you created them (in the case of yours), but because someone dared giving their opinion. No reason for you to get into trouble, then. You see what I mean? The fact that the censorship does not really come from the forum rules or guidelines explains why you are not the most targeted even if you are a prolific creator of soon-to-be-closed threads 
Now I do think the forum staff is wrong for closing many of the topics with flagged messages. But as a person who did moderation on many forums, I understand the trade-off. I simply think at this point they are not at the right balance. But it's difficult and time-consuming to improve. The problem may be that the forum is too small to consider paid full-time moderators, and that's almost the only solution. On the most balanced and best forum I've ever moderated, I remember spending hours a days moderating, we were 3 to 5 and all important decisions were taken at least by 2 people and were re-debatable at later stages when other moderators showed up. Ideal, but impossible unless you find several moderators with no life haha. I stopped when I started working, that was only possible when I was a student.
That really depend on personal experiences with forums I suppose. I find this one have relatively low tolerance and diversity, BUT I admit that I'm often on particularly good forums on that aspect, because a lot of my interests bring me to multicultural forums. I totally can imagine that if we take Internet whole, most forums are worse that this one on that point, yes.
I dont have time for discord. If a lot of these folks spent as much time working on their comics as they do in discord, they'd probably get stuff done.
I like the "tameness" of this forum. If I come in here and everyone's sh*t flinging at each other, my first instinct is:
I wanna come to a forum where I can sit down and talk/engage/discuss topics with other creators without having to insult, sh*t talk, and argue with disruptive personalities and/or derailing.
As for the ageism- stop. Art/comics are subjective; what one person may not like, someone else does. There is NO such thing as someone is "too old" to be making comics- This type of thinking is right up there with the discourse that "you should be financially set/set in your career and made thousands of dollars before you're 30"; not everyone has the same path in life or the same opportunities. I didnt start being super serious about making comics until I hit my 30s- and then I took a 10 year hiatus...I'm 46 now and making the comics I wanna make.
I do have a lotta issues with this forum so I tend to use discord more. For me it’s cus I have a lot of opinions on making comics that a lot of people don’t really like and I like to vent out my feelings in a space where I don’t think people will chew me out for it. And I do think some of my thoughts COULD seem really tough and discouraging to folks and I never EVER wanna be discouraging.
I’ve also seen and experienced some extra weird hostility specifically aimed at folks who do draw comics full time.
as for the gossiping I think that’s just going to happen when there are problem users in a forum. And there will always be problem users in any forum. I think the people I’ve seen gossip about tend to be people who have been confronted but continue to have issues in the community even after they’ve been brought to their attention. But it’s also not fair for anyone to keep doing that in a public forum over and over again and people do get frustrated.
Really? I feel like the majority of creators here gave the goal of making comics full time. I've seen a couple shots taken at hobbiests, but thankfully only a couple.
I saw that with the discord in another thread and was shocked 
I never thought this kind of thing would happen with something related to Tapas since I always had a very good feeling about the community. On the other hand, exactly this same thing has happened to me in my old writing community (not because of age though) so I guess I should have expected it.
I honestly have nothing much to say to this and just want to shake my head at this whole situation. There's one thing though that I'd like to add in regard to what you wrote:
This is very true and not just in regard to art. Experience is something that often (not always) comes with age. I'm actually very happy we have some 'old' people because this allows us 'young' people to get another take on things.
To be honest, what I really love about Tapas and its community is that it's so very diverse. Having people from all over the world and from different age groups is what makes many of the discussions here so very interesting. I often keep quiet in threads and only read and like but since I came here I've had a blast learning lots of new stuff from all the people here. So I guess thanks to our older community members for contributing to this. At least to me, your insights are very much appreciated.