A lot of folks, children mostly, call the hall monitors when they run out of intelligent things to say.
Yes, they do. Others call the moderators when there is a question regarding the rules of the forum. I do that from time to time, to make sure I understand the rules correctly.
I also do it in the case where a rule is broken in a way that could damage Free Republic, such as a threat against a public official, an advocacy of some illegal act, or other such situations.
I do not do so when I, myself am attacked personally. I prefer to leave such attacks visible, so others can see them. Often, however, someone else clicks Report Abuse, and those attacks are removed.
The rules here are simple: You can see them every time you post a message here:
"Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts."