Time and effort IS a factor. We are talking about unpaid volunteers who are donating their time and effort to the Mudcat. Max's Mudcat. No matter what Max said 6 years ago about it being "our" forum, it is still Max's Mudcat. In order to help him manage the Mudcat, he enlisted Joe, Jeff, and the Joeclones a few years ago. They work to enhance the Mudcat experience for ALL of its members as much as is humanly possible. This takes the form of trying to keep it clean of vile personal attacks, spam, pornography and such. It also consists of making retrieval easier by correcting spelling, linking threads, deleting multiple posts, and other editing functions that are essential to facilitate data retrieval. I for one appreciate that. When I am looking for a song, I don't want to have to search on every possible misspelling of "Diddle My Fiddle" in order to find it. If people were being paid by the hour to do this, they might not mind added hassles interfering with their efficiency. As they are donating their time, we owe it to them to make it less onerous for them.

In addition, they are not "imposing their personal judgement." They are exercising their judgement on behalf of Max. They are not always right. There is also room for disagreement. Joe has the authority to overrule somebody's judgement if, in his judgement (also exercised on behalf of Max) it is warranted. Max obviously is pleased or at least satisfied with the way this judgement is being exercised, or else he would make changes.