I suppose I'll have to be careful or the thread will get locked or 'moved' (which seems to be psychcentral speak for 'relocated to the trash). what seems to happen here is that if people use the 'report this post' function the moderators take a look at the post and they might well decide to lock / move the thread. i'm a little disappointed in that they oftentimes don't seem to read the thread in its entirety to figure out whether there might be something they can say to help move things along in a more productive way. i'm a little disappointed in that they oftentimes seem to go with the complaints over what the person actually did say. i'm a little disappointed in that they sometimes post accusatory / hostile things (assign blame) before locking the thread. but in their defence... time is limited.

i've been on a few different boards now and each board has had a distinct flavour of moderation. the boards seemed to have a different flavour too, perhaps as a consequence of the moderation or perhaps the differences in moderation rose up out of the differences in the flavour of the boards. i'm talking mental health boards who have at least one professional as moderator (though often consumers to assist).

is there a perfect blocking / locking system? i don't know. there are places (e.g., usenet) where there isn't any moderation at all. i've taken a look but i have to admit i've had no desire to post there whatsoever. people were really rather blatent with their accusations and hostilities and put downs and in some instances threats. so i think it is good that there are some limits on what people can say. if you really think about it there are limits on what people can say IRL too. if you yell 'fire' in the movie theatre or 'bomb' on the plane you will face consequences. there are liable and slander suits as well...

but where to draw the limits?

i find this a really interesting question and i wish we were allowed to discuss it in the interests of making progress (because nothing is perfect surely).

but one of the rules of the site is that we aren't allowed to discuss administrative issues on the boards. administration issues are dealt with privately by personal message. i can't remember the exact phrasing of the rules... i don't really see why we can't discuss very general issues like this... i guess it is that admin doesn't think we can have a profitable discussion about it? maybe thinking it... makes it so.

sigh.

sucks to feel censored though huh.

i'm sorry.

in answer to one of the questions: yes posters get blocked from this site for a time. nothing is posted to the boards about it, however. i've been blocked before. during that time my computer seemed to be locked so i couldn't even read / view the pages.

i guess that after a time of posting on the boards... you start to collect email addresses and things like that. i will say that in my experience doc john only blocks someone from posting as a last resort strategy. i fully earned my block. i get that. in a way i would have been disappointed if i hadn't been blocked. there have to be some limits, sheesh.

;-)