So... this is about removing the people you don't like after all?
No, it's not. I don't do that even when
I'm the one doing the moderating.
So people are saying that silliness in some threads is bad, because it will spill over into oth
Blackberry vines could spread everywhere, but that doesn't mean you can't let them grow in limited areas. They're tasty and beneficial. You just have to be careful about pruning them back IF they get out of control, you don't have to nuke them from orbit (it's not the only way to be sure).
It's not always that simple. Administering a forum (or any other sort of online community) is not just about rules, banishment, reporting, and that sort of stuff: It's about fostering the kind of community and environment that you want to foster. This is not something you can accomplish just by banning or yelling at people unless you do it in a fairly loose-cannon manner or the community is very small. A lot of things aren't cut-and-dry enough to make rules about, and there is a lot of behavior worth discouraging but not worth banning people over. There are degrees of subtlety here that you really just aren't addressing.
Also: Just because blackberries are good doesn't necessarily mean I want to grow them on my dairy farm, because people can get them elsewhere.
I know I've said things like this before, but I'd appreciate it if people would actually address my points (and in ways that I haven't already responded to a dozen times over), instead of picking at really incidental points or engaging in bizarre character attacks.