If anyone's interested in how other forums handle personal abuse/insults/stupid topics etc etc, I belong to a video gaming forum (!) in Australia, where the majority of the members are young - from 14/15 upwards to my age (30-ish) and a couple older.

Anyway.

The forum is moderated by a number of long standing members appointed by the site owner.

When there is personal abuse or something really distasteful the following happens:

1. A moderator (or the site owner) identifies the culprit(s) and gives a warning.

2. if the warning is not heeded then either -

a. The thread is deleted

or
b. The offender is banned (usually for "life" depending on how serious the behaviour is and whether or not it's been a long standing problem.


Sometimes a thread deletion/locking AND a banning is handed out.

I must say, it's quite a swift and decisive punishment system - but fair.

So here's my point -

There is (usually) very little trouble in our forum and what trouble there is disappears fairly quickly BECAUSE the disciplines handed out are consistent, fast and, often, far reaching and permanent.

I guess it's a much smaller community here then the games forum, so "every member counts" so to speak, and granted, the forum members in that same forum are MUCH younger than many of the members on this forum, but I guess we've all found that chronological age doesn't always equal maturity.


I really feel that the stricter a forum is, the better it runs.


I must also point out though, that I've emailed Nigel a few times, and found him to be an intelligent, thoughtful and insightful man (typical Aussie - lol), and he's probably too busy with his career (in video games co-incidentally!) to feel he has to babysit this forum.

I can understand that.

2cents...