There's no way we could find moderators willing to read lengthy, quibbling threads like this one. I can tell from the onset that they're going to be troublesome. I suppose we could just bar threads like this one that look like they're going to be trouble, and that would be the end of it. But it appears that people want to talk about subjects like this, so we let them. If you wish to participate in such discussions, please be aware that they're likely to turn nasty - so your participation is at your own risk.

We moderate such threads by responding to complaints, not by reading and judging every message. I received a complaint about the messages from Glueman, so I read the last several messages he posted. They were clearly personal attacks, which are prohibited at Mudcat - whether the attacks were justified or not, is not the issue. Therefore, he was barred from this one thread, which seems like a fairly minimal penalty.

The messages from Jim Carroll were also out of line, so he received a warning. Maybe Glueman deserved the warning and Jim Carroll deserved to be barred from one thread, I don't know. Neither penalty seems particularly serious. This is hardly the end of the world. It's like calling a foul in a football match, or whatever it is that referees do on your side of the pond. I probably could have called a foul on Dick Miles and on Suibhne O'Piobaireachd, too, if I could spell his name...

Actually, this thread got to be more like a hockey game - by about the 175th post, most of the players should have been in the penalty box.

If you would like to continue this discussion, please do so in another thread and link back to this one. Maybe that will cool things down a bit.
Thank you.

-Joe Offer, Forum Moderator-
(apologies for the sports analogies)