Third, nastiness and personal attacks are not only tolerated when they are against anon posters, but encouraged, by both members and management alike. As long as that continues, you will have number four...

The worst of the nasties/personal attacks in the last couple of years have been coming from members, not guests. As to why this level of nastiness and animosity is growing, see #3 above. Once you allow and encourage people to be nasty and mean to one group, it is impossible to stop it from spilling over into the forum at large.

I agree.

The net result will be a shift in the standards and attitudes of this community brought about by filtering out of all those who do not wish to engage in, or read, the nastiness. Those who like to brawl will remain behind to populate Mudcat and attract others like themselves to the site. New members will leave quickly, unless they are of the latter inclination.

I couldn't find any rules here, except "no racism or hate". The apparently arbitrary nature of the "discipline" applied to members when they break unwritten rules, lead many members to assume that the moderator's actions are based more on the personal feelings of those in power than on the needs of the Mudcat community. This causes a great deal of distrust and bad feelings. Maybe Mudcat has grown up enough to have a set of written guidelines and consequences which can be applied equally to all members?