Forums moderation

Certainly can allow branching of closed topics. Noting it down.

@Matthew & @izogi, should some threads (like the ones Matthew sometimes closes because they are causing issues) stay closed, and not be able to be branched? Just an idea

@pipeking In principle the difference between moderation and censorship is all about the distinction between behaviour and content. Most people understand that its necessary to close down blatant offensiveness, pointless abuse, threats, doxing, openly racist and sexist content and the like. Moderation is used to prune off the worst of these and help educate the rest of the commenters about what's acceptable. But the problem is that the person being offensive usually doesn't see it that way. They're fixed on what they see is their point or the content of their argument. So when they're moderated they almost always feel persecuted, silenced and censored. I've truly lost count of how often I had that accusation thrown at me. While at the same time other users on the same thread will express their relief that 'finally someone did something about xxx's bad behaviour'. If you see someone using moderation to openly skew the argument and then claim a 'win' - then you do have a problem with censorship. That's always a bad idea because commenters will desert the forum like rats. The ship is indeed sinking. But most of the time it's pretty obvious to everyone else that it was the behaviour being targeted and life goes on more peaceably than before. And usually the person moderated goes away - has a long hard think - and returns later, much smarter about how they express themselves.

I have been a member of these forums since 2005. Not as long as some. But from what I have seen and experienced over time this site is very well controlled and the rules and procedures in place seem to be perfectly adequate to deal with any problems that may occur from time to time yet still allow for robust discussion as needed. This is due to the time and effort that Matthew puts into the site, something that we can all be grateful for.

can or do new members have to acknowledge the forum rules and the consequences of breaking those rules before they complete signup?

And agree to any future changes to rules and consequences