The FAQ section does an excellent job of establishing the rules and norms of the forum.
The FAQ outlines the consequences for violations as well.
When you see bad behavior, don’t reply. Replying encourages bad behavior by acknowledging it, consumes your energy, and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by moderator intervention.
In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time.
The only automatic moderation rules I know of are some filters in place to tackle spam and bots. I’m sure there are a few potential keywords that may throw up a flag for a moderator to review a post before allowing or disallowing it. Standard practice for an online forum where the goal is to keep the discourse civil, productive, and broadly focused on a niche topic.
Do you know if there is even a restrictive filter on speech in effect here? You have one example of comments being removed. I was not a member of the forum when this happened, or maybe I just missed it (in which case I’m glad I did) - but you have freely admitted to, together with other members of the forum, essentially bullying another member (and respected framebuilder to boot) to the point that they felt it best to leave this place behind.
If I read this correctly, you’re telling us all that this bullying behaviour should have been left alone, and the self-described “mean-spirited” comments should have been left in place for everyone to see, even though they go against the rules of the forum that you willingly accepted when you became a member?
As long as the rules do not restrict your particular brand of rudeness, I presume?
Here’s the thing.
Allowing any kind of speech and discourse, except for hate speech and fraud (strangely limited list, but whatever), without moderation, will not foster a positive environment. I get that you think positivity can be toxic, but I have a strong feeling that you’re in the minority here. I am, however, open to being proven wrong.
If I wanted to spend my free time sifting through negative, petty and abusive comments, I’d just go to the comments section of any political news story on Facebook…
This is a place I go to for discussion about bike stuff and framebuilding stuff. Bikes are fun, and fabrication is fun. Reading comments from people who want to be able to be rude in the name of “free speech” is not my idea of fun.
It’s hardly a big sacrifice to leave a shitty attitude behind, for the benefit of letting this place be somewhere people can share their work without having to deal with unproductive and downright rude criticism.