Just my 2 cents on the issue:
I frequent lots of forums myself but I don't have the time to read every post. I have enjoyed AW.net for a long time, although I agreed that moderation was a bit tight in the beginning. I must admit I didn't see what this particular issue was, but from the name of the thread in question and its rising comment numbers, I knew that it was safe to stay away (long before it was closed).
I totally accept people complaining about moderation, both lack of, or too much. I normally tend to pester mods off-site myself if I feel some decisions are way out of line.
Controversive topics and posts will always arise on a website with a forum, specially when the forum is "on display" and people wanting to provoke gets instant attention of all its users.
One of the "problems" in our community is that we are so few and it makes it much easier to get attention even if you are just making nonsense or deliberately creating trouble.
Being a good moderator on an Amiga site is therefore very hard, and it takes ages to get the hang of it, if you ever. There are thousand of methods to handle discussions so that the majority of users get a site that is worthwhile.
Sometimes a site has decided to have a strict policy with strict rules, sometimes a site doesn't have any rules, other times people with special backgrounds are automatically interpreted to be "trolling", sometimes people with special backgrounds are allowed to circumvent rules.
Website owners has every right to handle moderation on their site the way they see fit. Users of that site are getting a privilege to post there. But on the other hand, let's not forget web site owners also has the privilege of getting users visiting the site.
No matter how one decides to handle or not handle user input on a website, there will always be someone that disagrees. And if you disagree the best thing is to notify its owners with a construtive and polite message about what you find is unfair or incorrect. If that leads nowehere, ignore the threads you know might be unconstructive, or just "vote with your buck" and don't visit the site.
I'm not sure this "I'm a victim!", "Goodbye everybody!" or "The end of the world is nigh!" posts are any point though. A website owner will eventually notice if users don't like his webite, and other users are perfectly able to make up their own opinions.
On the other hand, it's probably an effective way to, again, get attention and inform others of what you feel is unfair. No offense here Paul, I've just seen too many "That's it I'm leaving!" posts on most Amiga sites, and some weeks later it turns out the person is back
I think we can agree though that Amigans are emotional people, we care in vast amounts and some times we might get hurt, "go mental", get very annoyed or just sad, out of stuff that outsiders might consider as a bagatelle.
Amiga.org was once a really active site and at some point it all accumulated into huge rowes and explosive threads. People back then "voted with their buck" and started to visit other forums, or started their own. This way Amiga.org now seems to have few "camp fights". Although camp fights in general are getting less and less on all forums.
Ann.lu resorted to user logins to get rid of the huge amounts of fights, but unfortunately the process of getting a user is too slow (I'm still waiting after some months), and the activity there seems to be very low.
Moobunny has always been totally open and is normally the scene for the most extreme fights, it's also kind of a sanctuary when one wants to criticize other sites, or people without any censorhip.
Amigaworld.net was made to concentrate and house users that favoured one of the Amiga branches and has been a helpful site in that regards.
The same goes for sites like MorphOS-News, MorphZone and AROS-Exec.
Unfortunately it MIGHT seem like AW.net was "too successfull", as with the huge amounts of people joining, it also has brung the trouble makers since it's the site where you get the most attention when osting.
With strict moderation from the start, it quickly gained a bad reputation by the victims of it. Even the loosening up of moderation during the years didn't help to get rid of the reputation.
I think some of the moderators also has been affected by the constant criticism on other sites and has gotten defensive and finally reached a point where every feedback feels like yet another stab. Hence some of them resort too quickly to get rid of any arising problems by putting people or threads away, rather than maybe see if other means can be used, although this is normally the exception and not the rule.
I believe the moderators and site owners of various sites constantly re-evaluate their policies and practice, and I'm sure if it turns out AW.net loses users becaue of its policies, the policies might change.
On the other hand they might also prefer to keep it like it is and accept losses in favour of stability and firm control. That's fine too as there are plenty of alternatives for the ones that disagree and people should accept what owners of sites prefer.
I don't want to start a discussion on what is right or wrong, just tried to summarize a bit, and suggest that it's not the end of the world if a site you frequent does stuff you don't like. Just chill and vote with your buck
