LARPs (live-action roleplay) have a rule 7: “don’t take the piss.” This allows enforcers to punish people for that kind of “closest-possible permitted thing.” (an extension of the “don’t take the piss” rule is “if you have to ask if you’re taking the piss, you are”).
If we port this back to the moderator’s dilemma, this would entail giving the moderator more power to use judgements or to be capricious (and an acceptance of that by the people posting). This gives great power to the moderators, and can easily be abused (that’s roughly how Chinese government censorship works); but if the moderators are reasonably trustworthy for that particular forum, and if they are known to be capricious, this can work very well.
LARPs (live-action roleplay) have a rule 7: “don’t take the piss.” This allows enforcers to punish people for that kind of “closest-possible permitted thing.” (an extension of the “don’t take the piss” rule is “if you have to ask if you’re taking the piss, you are”).
If we port this back to the moderator’s dilemma, this would entail giving the moderator more power to use judgements or to be capricious (and an acceptance of that by the people posting). This gives great power to the moderators, and can easily be abused (that’s roughly how Chinese government censorship works); but if the moderators are reasonably trustworthy for that particular forum, and if they are known to be capricious, this can work very well.