Let me start by saying I lurk here and post little. I'm not a second (or sixth) account. I'm an outsider looking for good info without the politics. Problem is, this and every other benchrest forum is a politics site. Be it which gunsmith you find the best, or what train of thought you decide to follow, or if the moderators are right or wrong. They are all old men acting like small school girls with a gem of information tossed in here and there. This site has loads of great info but it also has a ton of bickering for no apparent reason.
Honestly, I find the websites that run the best, regardless of the point of interest, are moderated by people who have little desire to post often, have a great deal of knowledge on the subject matter, and have the ability to stay out of most threads that aren't in blatant disrespect for the wording and meaning of the rules. When moderators want to join the debate it is no longer an unbiased (or reasonably unbiased) view on the thread. When they don't know the subject matter, say rimfire benchrest, it's hard for a moderator to truly understand what is helpful and what is sarcastic and misleading. That isn't to say a moderator shouldn't post in a forum he/she doesn't have a great deal of knowledge about, but that they may want to step away from the moderating duties when in such a place as they don't have a full grasp of the comments being made and their true meanings.
Deleting posts is an option I don't like short of something being grossly incorrect and damaging or inflammatory. I've been on many forums that hand out short term bans. As you go and act like a fool, the more you do so, the longer your ban. People straighten up or they leave. Posts don't mysteriously vanish. I think people are more offended with deleted posts than a formal warning or ban and from then have more of a chip on their shoulder with the staff, especially if the comment was questionable to begin with.
Certainly mods on all forums get a bit of the short end of the stick with a reputation but I know many that are nothing but respected. That is missing here and honestly it seems to be an issue that is due to the moderator(s) rather than the forum posters. Moderators shouldn't defend their actions to the common posters. They answer up the chain. When they try to defend themselves down to those they enforce the rules to, the masses lose respect for the moderator, especially when not seeing eye to eye with the decision. Adding that to a moderator who is relatively a newbie with the subject matter and people lose faith in a given moderator's judgement and decision making.
I don't honestly care what happens. I can live with sarcasm and disagreements. What I don't like most is when people add a smiley face to a blatantly cruel post. If I haven't followed the last 30 threads between the two people posting I can't tell if it's a joke between friends or two people trying to hurt the other's reputation. I don't know any person on this or any other shooting forum. I don't know who are good buddies in real life and who are competing for a similar market share. All I know are the words posted on this and other forums. I spend the biggest bulk of my time trying to figure out who is honestly upset with who and who is just teasing a friend. I don't mind if people want to keep secrets on the knowledge they've found. I enjoy what info/knowledge is shared. I'll continue to lurk here as long as knowledge keeps being shared, even if in small bits between a mass of arguing.
One thing is for certain, regardless of if you are a mod or not, most people don't see themselves or their comments as wrong. If they did, they wouldn't have done or said what they did. Many times we need to step back and look at what we are doing and if it is going to make anyone else better off or at the worst indifferent.
