I've recently noticed that the language in these forums has been slowly degrading.
What has caused this, and can it be fixed?

I think it's just the plain and simple fact that we're starting to get younger members.  Only for examples, look at the contrasts between Katana and Fozzer.

You do realize that once these notes get read, we are gonna get bashed .....big time........from all the other users on here......after all, we are a minority.......

For some people, it's part of their daily vocabulary. Not myself personally, but being a high school student, I am pretty numb to it. 

I believe Yabb has an option to edit out the particularly naughty words. But, words like crap, hell, etc. aren't considered "bad" in my book. 

Speaking as an English teacher I think there are two major reasons.
Number one we are attracting a lot of new members for whom English is NOT their mother language, and they should be applauded for having a go in a different language (believe me I know how hard it is!), and you have different levels of expertise within that language, for example ATI is v.good at English, and he is German, whereas some of our other foreign members are still just beginning to learn English.
Also the education system (please note that word, do NOT suppliment for teachers!) is failing. All students seem to care about these days is their rights, not their education. When I first started teaching in Hungary I was treated v.differently by the students than I am now, nowadays they know I can't even give them a detention, so they swear at me, or wonder into the class half way through the lesson, and don't apologise! It really comes down to the hippy brigade (no disrespect to ex-hippies), and their free will attitude and lack of discipline. In Japan things are v.different, and they still have exceptional discipline, and it shows!
Alas we cannot turn back the clock and fix these things, and alas the American sueing culture is catching on everywhere these days. There was a good thread about this a while back, and a lot of the American members here were saying 'why can't people accept responsibility for their actions?', and they were right.

Ozzy

my mother language is Dutch. in these forums i learn much english. of course i still make lots of mistakes, but without them, you can't learn anything... by the way, it 's much more fun to learn a language this way, than in a classroom.

okay,i'll try to avoid using "bad" words. promised.

Quote:

Brensec, my old sparring partner.  
I have no objection to ampersands or indeed the usual chat shorthand like LOL or ROFL.  

Steve-O pointed out that he was referring to bad language in the original topic. Depends what you mean by bad language. A lot of acceptable words in common usage today were regarded as disgusting in my young days. I always thought we're a reasonably well-behaved lot.  

PS. This reply has been edited as I found a mistake after clicking the Send button.