Blarg: I find forums usually turn to crap after a while. They turn into popularity contests with mods generally stoking the flames of the process, and when not doing that, at least not stopping people from butt kissing and every sort of slimy behavior. Very few mods seem to come out of the whole process with their humility or perspective intact.
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It's people who want to overregulate the discomfort out of our lives who make it so that we can't have nice things.
Agree with this, though I wouldn't put it that negative. I've participated in plenty of forums that kept on going and kept on producing quality material over ten years plus now. Of course - the topics and audience are important: forums not aimed or of interest for majorities (and that are not dealing with "offensive", "weird" behaviour) usually do quite well.
And from both user and moderator perspective over the years I feel that the best moderation is one that is quite lax. Very authoritarian methods usually just make things worse, as thread locks and bannings are no turn off for those that aim to troll. If someone enters a forum aiming to be destructive he/she expects draconian response. And feels confirmed at that. Better moderation aims for de-escalation and puts trust in community members.
That's not said that the one or the other thread doesn't need locking at times. But a good indication for successful moderation is that most users never notice it occurs.
-Mnemon
