Hi Traxx,

Looks like KarrieD and mmm already answered your questions. I'm not a mod here, but was a long-time mod on another board until I got burned out. It's a LOT of work that general members rarely seem to recognize or understand, and you have to put up with a LOT of BS. When people are allowed to communicate via this 2-dimensionial, anonymous absurdity we call the internet, the "best" of their personalities don't always shine through. Some are emboldened by their anonymity and feel a sense of entitlement that they can get away with a lot more than they could ever get away with in RL.

The work is made even more difficult when flaming personalities are involved. And that flaming continues when said "flamer" becomes even more irritated because he/she feels his/her rights are being violated (free speech issues about) when mods attempt to correct their behavior. They become paranoid that the mods are after them personally, and they send even more inflammatory - and abusive - PMs in response. Their behavior on the board often escalates tenfold in the PMs because they feel they are being "punished."


As one of the other two noted, members in constant and flagrant violation of the rules are often warned multiple times before being banned. When I first started modding on this other board, our usership was about 2,000 people per day. Over the year+ that I modded, it grew to over 10,000 per day, and has swelled even more since then. And I only modded in 1 of about 12 individual forums. We had a "3 strikes, you're out" policy, regardless of the rule violation. Flaming was just one of the issues, and personalities like our departed rb made it even more difficult because individuals like that are typically difficult to deal with.

Banning was always a SERIOUS issue, and in most instances we mod discussed the situation at length before coming to any decision.

I would encourage everyone to worry less about why individuals were banned and give a big hug and round of applause to your hard-working, volunteer MODS.