ok.. I've just tested it, seems to be working so now.. if I post anything really stupid I'll report it
Three excellent points. I believe they can be summarized down to "Avoid General Chat" and "Ignore stupid people." Shawn's ultra-light moderation policy really does create the best online community, even if it does mean that we all have to put up with some of the stranger denizens of the Internet from time to time. I frequently want to ban people from DP. Although that would have a positive benefit in the short term, it's long term effects would be negative. The overall chilling effect on free speech would be worse than the benefit of temporary peace and quiet. It's a good thing that I am not a MOD. The basic rule to remember is that you are responsible for your own data input. The world contains an abundance of data sources. It is your responsibility to choose which ones you wish to fill your own head with. Perhaps DP isn't for you. There are quite a few super-moderated SEO forums on the 'net. As a general rule, they suck.
Running a forum and thinking you'll only get high quality on theme posts for free to get more unique content and rank better is stupid and ridiculous. Almost all the stuff found in all forums is complete garbage, waste of time, pointless discussions and endless arguing, it never ends, but that's what it is, that's what forums are for. You can't complain that not every post is 100 unique adsense secrets to triple your income quickly. Forum is a community, people come here to meet friends, to discuss things and just to burn time or whatever. Of course you need to ban those who act unappropriate, spammers and scammers, but you can't ban a person for just having views, different from your own. You can't expect all people to post their secrets or to share their business ways, it's foolish. IMO, moderators should only delete something that is a sure spam and in that case DP is pretty good comparing to other webmaster forums and I agree with Will here, light moderation is the best. Reputation system is also a good way to allow everyone take an active part in the forum moderation and the system works almost perfect that way and I love it
....or just don't read your posts Will, much quicker solution! PS: Great avatar Will, that last one was sheer brilliance on your part man! It made you look smart worldwide