I’ve been thinking a bit about my experiences with moderating this board and I wanted to share.
As boards go, there aren’t a lot of rules here. We allow commercial posts (free advertising) with some limitations which most seem to think are reasonable. Overall, after some difficult times with it, I’m personally pleased with how that has worked out. People have largely been very good about sticking with the rules and readers seem to be ok with it.
The stickier thing, really, is the business about manners and refraining from personal attacks. I’ve learned the hard way that (a) there is a tremendous range of opinion about what constitutes a personal attack. Some seem to feel that if they lose an argument–or even if someone just argues with them–they’ve been personally attacked. Others feel that they can attack someone freely and then make it ok by simply claiming that it’s not personal. Kind of like, you know, ‘just kidding.’
(b) The rare person that persistently engages in personal attacks presents a problem for moderators. I recently had occasion to delete several posts by a repeat offender. Now I wish I hadn’t: Not because I feel it wasn’t warranted but because it mostly generates a lot of confusion when a thread is selectively edited. Responses and replies stay in the thread and so it can end up being incomprehensible when the offending posts are deleted. I am also trying to stay away from EDITING offending posts for other reasons that are too weird to expound on.
People often urge me to “ban” offenders. Easier said than done, and I’ve corresponded a great deal with Rich about this issue. (Rich manages the forums and databases technically). We can delete a person’s log-in, which we’ve done maybe two or three times in the history of the board. Nothing that is practical can keep the same person from creating a new log-in and/or identity and continuing. It’s not a worthless thing for a moderator to do, because it does communicate a stern message and creates inconveniences for the offender, but it’s not a “ban,” really. We can lock out IP addresses, but this is technically troublesome because we run the risk of locking out non-offenders (which has actually happened recently.)
In many ways, I think the answer to this should lie with the members of the board. Some folks just can’t resist responding to trolling and cannot bear to let someone who is being a bit obnoxious have the last word. This encourages the offender to continue. But, I’ve learned from hard experience that, collectively, board membership won’t ignore obnoxious people. I understand that. But if everyone could sort of leave the offending poster sort of ranting in an empty room, it probably goes a long way to discourage that kind of behavior.
All this said, I am very happy with the board because I think that almost everybody is awfully nice and even when discussions get heated, civility is the rule.
I wanted to repeat a request. If and when you write me to ask me to look at or intervene in a thread, it saves me a ton of time if you will just go first to the thread you’re referring me to, highlight the URL (the web address), copy it, and paste it into your message to me.
Thanks for being a part of Chiff & Fipple.
Dale
Maybe they really ARE out to get you!!! 
Maybe I’ve been watching too many X-Files reruns 
My point entirely.