A forum just for hubbers? Now, you want to break or separate the community from the site? 
Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a writer's community forum? If the writer's have to visit another website and leave HubPages, it simply destroys the platform, for which, writer's who write, for whatever reason.
Ideas and views are expressed, and Yes, at times the discussions do get heated, and as you said, we are all adults here. Yet, there are plenty of people who act childish and resort to name-calling and sometimes harsh insults. However, insults are subjective to other people's emotions and self-esteem. This means, that if someone was to need to be banned, then it should be another Hub member to do the reporting and not the person who was insulted, because of their individual bias.
No one should be able to report a personal attack against themselves. This is the only way to ensure that personal attacks are taken seriously. When an abusive attack occurs, we as adults can tell the difference, even without the smiley face.
I will even go out on a limb and give credit of intelligence to every hub member, simply because I've read to 1000 hubs on top of posting 17,000+ times, and I can tell you there are plenty of very smart people, within HubPages Community of Writers.
Do notice: I continue to view HubPages as a Writer's Community, which does mean professional attitude should err on the side of caution, because hubs success, in the beginning, require the community. Advice is given, support is given, comments are made(which keeps refreshing content) and HubPages Staff are always willing to work with the community.
That has been proven. So, before we go off on a continued rant of this thread, which I am surprised is still going, let's try to understand - HubPages is a Writer's Platform for publishing Hubs. The forums, help people discuss topics and get new ideas for creating hubs. It works well and breaking things up, isn't an option.
HubPages works as it is now. Drawing in new membership all the time.
Well, that's all I have to say about it.
