"That never seems to work because of the debate-aholics, who think it's always necessary to choose up sides and defend their point of view to the death." But it's no use keeping complaining. If the ground rules are not laid down, then human nature will dictate that anything goes. Tell us that there'll be zero tolerance of name-calling or playing the man. You know what bigotry looks like so kick out the bigots. There are only about three real ones and if you don't know who I'm talking about then I don't know what. But what kind of a forum wants to give bigots free rein? Sheesh. Tell us that sweariness, which you indulge in on occasion and which Backwoodsman did in this thread without a trace of irony, will not be accepted. Don't waste time bantering with miscreants, either up here or in private, about whether you might suspend them or how you wish they'd behave better. Just make them disappear for a week or two and leave it shrouded in mystery. Don't bother posting moderatorial complaining about people all the time. Save your energy and get on with the banning. Brook no protests. Molly does it on the Gaughan forum and Jeremy does it on The Session. There are few, if any, signs of moderators or moderating on those forums, but begod just watch what happens to you if you step over their lines, and they don't waste time talking to you much about it either. The Session was a hellish place a few short years ago. I invite you to take at look at how much nastiness there is there now. You won't find any. It isn't about being horribly strict and nasty with people, like a bad cop. It's about making the ethos better. I mean, why do you let hateful threads go on and on and on? Are you trying to prove how terrible we are? Shut the thread. No argument, no comment, no last word. Do what Jeremy does and tell us to play a tune instead. And the person you ban first is the person who moans at you that you're curtailing his free speech. Just say, "Not here there isn't. Go and set up your own forum. Bye bye!"
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