Right, kat and Janie-
- we're still part of Max's experiment in "civilized anarchy," or whatever it was called Way Back When. The idea was that this would be a largely unmoderated Website, with conduct controlled mostly by the societal pressure of our community. I see many comments above that set expectations that Mudcat be more tightly controlled, but we have survived quite well with minimal moderation for 13 years now. We are indeed a wonderful community, where people go out of their way to show concern for each other and to share themselves with one another. We're not perfect, but a lot of good things happen here.

With few exceptions, most people whose identity is known, behave quite well. Most identified people who post, can be assured that their posts will almost never be deleted or altered. If a post from a known Mudcatter is objectionable for some reason, it usually won't be deleted unless it is a personal attack and the target of the attack complains.

Somebody above said that if there were a thread on child pornography, that the thread and its participants would be eliminated - I'm not so sure of that. If it had been started by a visitor, then yes, it would be deleted. But most of the time, we do not make judgments on the content of posts, and do not delete or edit unless there are precedented reasons for doing do.

And despite what some may see as our negligent lack of moderation, we do pretty well. The stuff I complained about above, is nothing I would ever consider deleting. Still, I think it's worthwhile saying something about it, when it disappoints me.

-Joe-