Soft forks tighten the rules, so they are backwards compatible with the old more lax rules.
Hard forks introduce new rules that are invalid under the old rules.
Important distinction.

almost all "soft forks" end up in being a hard fork

DarthCoin

Each fork is an opportunity to profit from stupid people, doubling your BTC stash (if you know how and when to do it).

bitcoin

Who else is excited about BIP 110?

ellipticKurve256k1

> Each fork is an opportunity to profit from stupid people, doubling your BTC stash (if you know how and when to do it).

Only in case of a hard fork