I had a feeling something like this would be brought up, going off some of the problems long-time users have brought up recently. A lot of what I think about the BBS has already been brought up to some degree by other users here, but I may as well just offer a few points while I'm here.
Firstly, I don't post anywhere near as often as I used to. I now see myself as a creepy, lurker expert of some sort though, so I still get around seeing what's hitting the BBS. Me posting less isn't the product of "Nazi moderating" or whatever; I sometimes just find it hard to actually contribute something to a thread. If I can't do that, I don't see the point, something that is repeated quite a few times at the bottom of the rules. I suppose there are different levels of taking the "before posting..." guideline, but I guess I'm one of the ones that follows it a little harsher. That doesn't mean I think all posts under three average sized paragraphs should be deleted: if someone's an idiot on the forum, I'll just see them as an idiot most of the time.
However, there are a few cases where a moderator has just clearly ignored that guideline, which is just a little concerning. I'll say now that it doesn't happen very often, because like many users, I think many of the mods are decent people who do a good job around here. There have been times though, and I'm not going to name names, where a mod has posted something along the lines of "What the fuck are you talking about?" I look at posts like that and just think, why did you even bother posting in the thread if you don't know what it's discussing? A friend and long-time BBS user claimed to me once that had he posted that message, it's possible he would've been banned for it. I'm not entirely sure about that, but it was still annoying to see.
Similar to that, some of the ways in which mod (or general Newgrounds) criticism/feedback is responded to borders on ridiculous. See this thread for instance. Yes, the original poster, kaywire, could have made a much better and more moderate thread to discuss what he wanted, and the fact he didn't is his own fault, I know. Threads like this are relatively good examples of how things can be discussed well, rather than resorting to "go if you don't like it" tactics. It's a bit murky, but my point is that people can talk about the mechanisms of the site quite well if they want to. Simply tarring a user as "stupid kid spammer" or something simply for bringing up a few points doesn't work for anyone. Don't get me wrong, there are faults on both sides, and I acknowledge that those faults are generally always a minority, whether we're talking about the regular users or the mods.
Obviously, I'll admit that I don't know how the moderating system really works, so I can't comment there (and because of this, I don't always like talking about almighty BBS politics, because I know it brands me to some extent as some shitty little upstart). Again, I think things are fine for the most part, and as someone said, a lot of the mods are interesting enough people to talk to off the BBS. Even EyeLovePoozy has seemed like a nice guy when I've spoken to him (if only briefly compared to others) elsewhere. On the BBS, "problems" are flagged at certain times, possibly as the outcome to some mod decision. As many like the amplify though, they're not perfect. I think rule-related matters can just be fine-tuned that little bit more if you know what I mean... WilliWowza brought this up on more than a few occasions.
Making an ultimate set of rules for every mod to work by would be difficult to devise in my opinion. The BBS, like any other Internet forum, is built on subjectivity, and therefore rules have to work with that. I definitely think Zerok's rule blog could be incorporated into the rules page though, and as I've said above, some of the responses people generally give to certain threads can be really ironed out. I'm not saying mods and users alike should ditch their sense of humour at the log-in (after all, a lot of you make up for the fact I don't have a sense of humour), but some attempted, "witty, sarcastic humour" is better off elsewhere, I think. Trying to make kids laugh by trying to say the word fuck as many times as possible in one post isn't really effective.
Yeah, my points are all over the place, and they are vague. Eh, I'll post them here for the sake of them possibly being built on or something. I wrote this up, not only because I'm grey and serious, but because I love Newgrounds. As I've said before, I wouldn't keep coming here if I didn't like the users, the mods and the general atmosphere among many other things. Even though I don't post much, I sneak around a lot, helping where I can. I think it's just a shame that as of recently, people I've known for months and years are growing fed up with the place. Hopefully I've brought up one or two things.
I think there was more I wanted to say... I need a notebook on my desk top for memory purposes :P
