[jimtorr]

An unmoderated forum is an unreadable forum. Without moderation the messages would sink in even more flame wars. Moderation is not censorship, moderation is necessary.

Precisely. That is what was happening before Jim/John invented moderators. I was once flamed for making what I thought was a well reasoned comment to a discussion. One of the parties thought that he was in a private discussion, rather than a public thread.

[Rodney King]

Precisely. That is what was happening before Jim/John invented moderators. I was once flamed for making what I thought was a well reasoned comment to a discussion. One of the parties thought that he was in a private discussion, rather than a public thread.

That still happens. It has happened to me on the daily bush love-in threads (and I like Bush, too) as well as on the South Africa threads.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

One of the parties thought that he was in a private discussion, rather than a public thread.

There used to be a lot of that 'how dare you post to me, I wasn't posting to you nonsense. You would think they had never heard of freepmail. It wasn't worth JimRob's time, but when things are slow, the mods can get people to knock off that kind of stuff.

[Liberal Classic]

My opinion is that the moderators do an excellent job. When I see a post is missing I usually look for replies people made before it was pulled. Almost every time, I understand why it was pulled.

Those who complain about moderation forget how bad unmoderated discussions can get. Ever tried to read Usenet lately?

[bvw]

I followed the usenets for a few years, but the unmoderated groups became all flame and no burger. Loved alt.rec.guns, it was moderated, and all the meat in it was well-cooked, becuase of the excellent moderation that did occur. It helped that the purpose of the forum was very specific and not general like FR, made eliminating the noise easier.

But immoderate moderation can be like the disease MS in a forum -- the forum lives on and on but it's nerves are deadened and muscles atrophied. One famous forum spin-off of ours comes to mind.