[Joe Johnson]

You bring up a lot of good points.

I believe that the organizers and moderators and everyone associated with these fora are worried about how to manage this and how to strike the right balance.

It has gotten harder and harder as the shear number of posts gets too big to read without making a full time job.

I think some of the problem comes from variations in moderator style.

Shear numbers dicated that we've had to open up the moderation to a larger number of people. This has lead to some variation between what moderators accept. We try to use similar standards, but it is not easy to get a group of people to all rule identically.

So... ...do we need to get a little thicker skin? Maybe.

Are neg. rep points a problem? Probaby yes, in some cases.

Do we need to open the fora up to all comers and all comments? No.

This thread is a good opportunity to think about how we can improve.

I think we can all support more free speech if there is a general concenus among ChiefDelphi.com users that yelling "FIRE!" in a crowded theater is not an acceptable use of that freedom.

Joe J.