As a mod, I think I'd like to chime in here.
1) Generally speaking, things have to get pretty bad before somebody gets permanently banned, in my experience. And sometimes, the very process of moderation necessitates cleaning up stuff in a way that other users can't always see the full story of what's gone down.
2) If a post breaks the rules and we don't see it, then please report it. Sometimes we'll act straight away, at other times we'll act after some discussion and occasionally we'll think there's no reason to respond. But no post report goes unconsidered.
3) As far as closing threads go, sometimes it's just the best way to get folks to take a breather. I personally try to clean up threads rather than close them if things get fraught, and so do my colleagues, but the latter option is the better choice on some occasions. There's always the possibility of continuing the discussion within the rules in a new thread, as is the case with this one.
4) I'm privy to discussions amongst the moderation and admin team and I can assure everyone here that we all do our utmost to be fair at all times and keep the forum a pleasant place to while away some time on the net. I think the popularity of the forum shows that we generally do a good job, even though we're not perfect.
5) As far as the notification thing goes - this is a fair point. Some users have their options set so that we cannot email them, and if they get banned they can't access their PMs to see why that has occurred. But generally speaking, we communicate pretty well with folks, I think.
6) Speaking personally, I certainly don't subscribe to the view that all opinions are equally valid, and I don't really think anyone else does, either. Nor do I think people have the right to be protected from offence, unless the post that offends them breaks the rules. If someone gets offended by a post that doesn't break the rules, then that's their problem.
AS far as pouring sugar on us mods goes - Jimmy, get the hell out of here!
