dg1, I respect your right to state your opinion, but want to follow it up with my own.

In my experience, moderation does work. It can work here, too. It's not about inhibiting people's right to express their opinions. It's about keeping discussions civil and somewhat on topic.

I've been on two moderated Internet forums, one a mailing list that deals with some extremely personal issues, and the other a technical forum on CompuServe. Both can get quite heated. I've rarely seen the moderator take anyone to task on either forum except when things really flared up. (At which point, there were usually several calls for "Moderator?") My take on moderated discussions is that knowing that a thread is moderated can give participants a little extra incentive to think before they hit the "submit" button.

I've unsubscribed from two other discussion forums that were not moderated, and both of which I really enjoyed when I started reading them. The level of discussion degenerated to such a degree that I couldn't take it any more. I saw that happening on FlyerTalk this summer, took a two month vacation, and came back hoping for the best. (So far, so good.) I think it's an idea worth looking at.

I'd certainly appreciate hearing more - why don't you think moderation would work, and especially here on FlyerTalk? More specifically, where have you seen moderation on an Internet board to be a problem, and why was it a problem? Perhaps I'm too biased in favor of moderation because I've only had good experiences with it, and need to hear about some negative ones.

[This message has been edited by dgolds (edited 10-09-2000).]