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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Browncoat" data-source="post: 223612" data-attributes="member: 1061">There are some misconceptions that go along with any forum on the internet, and some of them have been echoed here. As someone who has moderated several forums (including this one) and chat rooms over the years, I'll address the most glaring issue:This site is privately owned, operated, and paid for. There is a prevailing mentality that freedom of speech applies on an internet forum, but in fact, it does not. Just because someone entered their email and pressed the register button doesn't mean that they can post whatever they want. Internet forums are not owned by the communities they represent. Forums are a tough gig. You build a site, invest money in the software, advertising, and hosting in the hopes that it will attract membership and grow into a flourishing community. Forums are like a small business, and many die in the first year or never even really get off the ground. Many forums also suffer the fate of a split community where someone or a group of someones gets pissed off and they go and start their own forum because they think they can do it better. That has happened here also.Being a moderator is a tough and thankless job. These people are the public faces of the forum. They're the beat cops who do most of the grunt work and have to make a lot of judgement calls, often without a lot of guidance or official policies laid down by site owners. They have to be friendly, but firm. They have to be able to deal with spammers and flamethrowers, and worst of all...members like me who have a knack for being controversial and confrontational. But it all comes down to their own personalities and how they choose to address a situation.Frankly, I'm surprised this thread even exists at all, much less at 3 pages deep. The moderators don't have to explain their actions publicly to suppress the "need" for someone to know their methods.</blockquote>

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