Wow! I don't check the forum for just one morning, and all of a sudden I walk into this thread, already on page 8.

There is little for me to say that hasn't already been said, but I would like to offer a little bit of food for thought, coming from an ex-moderator on several other online discussion forums, and as a participant on numerous others.

There is no perfect system.

And in case you missed that, let me say it again with emphasis: There is no perfect system. Every forum creates its own "culture" and its own way of doing things that is unique. I can tell you right now, for instance that an adult-only thread would NOT benefit this place -- it's just not right for this forum's culture (in my opinion).

I used to be a silent mod (I had mod status with privs to the mod-only forum and threads, but retained an advisory role... Actual action would be taken by full-on mods) on one forum that was a spinoff another one -- that was created as a reaction to the perceived over-moderation of the original. (Not kilt-related whatsoever). Well, in the interest of being everything that the first forum WASN'T, the new forum instituted some interesting changes. Moderatorship was also much more open, but certainly not without its challenges. One of the interesting things they did, was start a forum, not unlike XMTS's "penalty box," except threads weren't locked in there. It was called "Fight Club" -- A place for threads that just get too nasty for the rest of us... And people could just FLAME ON to their hearts' contents. It started out okay at first, but within months it turned out to be kind of a failed experiment, and the rules had to be modified. The theory was, to simply give people the chance to work things out, or run out of steam eventually. Problem was, no one ever ran out of steam, and no one wanted to back down... If you excuse the vernacular, the e-peens were bloody HUGE!

But XMTS is no different. Having been hanging around this bunch for a few years already, I've seen this thread before, at least on a few occasions.

People get frustrated, occasionally leave, and within 48 hours there's a new thread on another kilt forum talking about the heavy-handed moderatorship here. In fact, I'd be surprised if this weren't already up being discussed elsewhere. No matter, that's all irrelevant.

If there's one thing I've noticed about XMTS, is that it IS fairly consistent. It IS fairly strictly moderated, and it always HAS been. And I think that those who have stayed on throughout some of the changes and growing pains and member exodi (exoduses?) have been able to come to grips with that and somehow reconcile the friendship, informative value and positive qualities with the fact that you CANNOT say what you like, when you like, how you like.... And realize that even a completely BENIGN thread can turn sour.

Has there been a rash of benign threads turning sour? Maybe. But I would encourage everyone, the least of whom the OP, to not give up on the forum just because the weather turned rainy for a few days.

Take a break? Sure. We all need 'em. Leave for good? That's everyone's right, but I have yet to visit a perfect forum. Unless you learn to exorcise your demons ANYWHERE, it's just a matter of time until you're faced by the same problems on the NEXT site. And the next one, and the one after that.