The Knife thing happens in public as well, but for me, its rare to see compared to Nova servers.
I don't really knife fight because about 60% to 70% of the time, I come out as the sliced one

So I don't see why I should risk giving the other team 3 points or lose the 8 minutes and 53 seconds of Zone time that I've picked up on a 10 min counter.
At the end of the day, I like to win (I don't play to win all the time like) And if a blokes coming at me with a knife, Bang Bang goes my SA80
I'll knife, but only if Im sure of a good chance of coming out of it, the Unsliced one

I.E Sniper hunting.
If I've pulled a knife on someone and they Shoot me or throw a nade in my face, fair enough, I wont call them a nOOb for it, I have more important things to do....like getting my Revenge >:-) or Winning my zone back
I know one thing though, I wont be leaving DF just because their servers are down at the minute. When I leave, it'll be because I'll moving on with my life, and even then I'll probably end up buying a laptop with an Internet conn, and hey presto! Im Back