[melensdad]

From a different perspective, and take it for whatever it is worth, I'm a moderator on a fairly large forum and we have some well established policies that are known by all, or at least posted so people can find them.

1 - We will not delete a thread.
2 - We only allow users to edit their own posts for a limited time (I think 20 minutes).
3 - We forbid direct insults to other members (act like an adult rule)

Those policies make people think about what they write. There are a lot of young hot heads here on this forum, instituting rules like the two above will make them think a little bit when they write a flaming post. After all, they won't be able to go back an undo their words after they sleep on it for a night.

We have strict moderation policies in some forum areas where it is posted that the topics are supposed to be serious discussions. We have almost no moderation in the political area because we want free discourse of ideas.

The moderators here may want to consider coming up with a set of user guidelines/rules for civility and posting them in the FAQ area? If rules are set up and known then the people have a code of conduct to live up to when they post. Just a suggestion.