>Zane,
>
>>Usually an individual decision, sometimes discussed first.
>
>That's the key, to me. Clearly defined rules that don't have to have a committee decision for action, AND a management team that allows the sysops to act. That would solve a lot of the sysop paralysis here (this is a criticism of the system, not the sysops themselves).

David,

The management gives the sysops essentially full control over these situations. Any sysop can freeze a thread so no more posts can occur in it. This has been done. However, all of the sysops take that power as extremely important and we, as a group, are not inclined to execute that action without consulting with others.

Why? Because many of the rules are subjective. What you find offensive may be very different from what someone else finds offensive.

I know I have had my moments when someone really got me PO'd and my response was not in the kindest and politest fashion. It is fairly easy to rise above the poster of the questionable message and simply not respond or respond to say that you feel the reply was out of line. This can be done without degrading one's self to the same level of the attacker.