You have UK mods? Like Joe? Surely these are 'secret'? I'm not talking about elves, is it? (sorry I've never got my head round the different roles/job titles here).

Obviously there are important tasks to be done behind the scenes - but I'm talking about a mod like Joe, who has 'moderator' in his sig and therefore speaks with an authority born of the knowledge that he can ban members, close threads, delete posts etc. (The others don't because we don't know who they are - or we forget because it's not in the sig).

Mostly, of course, he doesn't need to - a shot across the bows is usually enough. In fact just knowing that he's reading a thread has an instant calming effect on the debate.

This also happens on the BBC forum. There in fact are many faceless mods in the BBC factory, who don't post as themselves, but merely apply the rather draconian BBC House Rules. There are lots of things wrong with the BBC system - as others will testify - but the basic approach has merit, even though it's a little hamstrung by the need to confirm to the BBC Production Guide.

We also we have our host, Mel, who occupies the role played by Joe here. (Sometimes other hosts pop in too). Now, that site is nothing like as busy as Mudcat, and Mel - though extremely tactful and attentive - is not full time, so is unable to keep on top of everything which is one of the reasons they have a rather over-zealous mod system.

But if you had a handful of cool, polite, laid-back but empowered people here - volunteers who were willing to keep at one remove from the debate but who still chipped in regularly, who were KNOWN to have edit power, because it said so in their sig, I think you'd find a lot of nastiness could be avoided.

And because much of the brawling happens in the Eastern Atlantic Islands, it makes sense to have people who will be at their computers at the times when debate is likely to be hottest.

I get the impression that some Statesiders are at a loss to understand some of the behaviour emanating from this side of the pond. I think it's a cultural thing - we're used to tighter guidelines over here, and in the absence of them are more liable to loose our way - which is why sometimes it can look as though a small group of us could derail the whole project.

Tom