The fact that this place is so unmoderated is what makes it such a success. Every site that’s become heavily moderated has nosedived. 24hcf got its big jump start when the moderator at Shooters.com started getting very heavy handed so people migrated to 24hcf en masse.
What we are seeing here is freedom of speech and freedom of speech always contains within it the possibility for hearing (or reading) things one doesn’t like. We could become 24 Hour Snowflake Site and ban people who might say things that offend us, that’s exactly what’s happening on liberal college campuses these days. People want someone else to protect them from things they don’t want to hear. So what happens when those people decide that what you (the you of whoever reads this) are saying is unacceptable?
The internet has given us the ability to communicate with people we’d never have met in a million years and I derive a great benefit not only from seeing technical things discussed but just reading about what others do – Northern Dave’s cars and Kamo Gari’s culinary pictorials and Kaywoodie’s and Birdwatcher’s living history not to mention going along vicariously on Birdwatchers monumental bike tours, and “talking’ to Mule Deer who has taught me more about handloading for accuracy in the last few years than I learned in the prior 30; plus learning from the accumulated knowledge and experiences of hundreds and hundreds of other folks on an encyclopedic array of subjects.
The flip side is that it gives social maladroits and alcoholics and the perpetually angry (which includes several of the “big personalities” here) a chance to lash out and spew their sh*t at people who wouldn’t otherwise have to listen to their crap.
The ONLY way to squash a troll is to NOT RESPOND. but people's egos are so huge and controlling they think they are actually hurting these trolls by responding and calling them names. NO - trolls don't care what kind of attention they receive as long as they receive attention. So the big egos and those angry at what they say feed them a banquet here instead of starving them which is the ONLY way to get rid of a troll.
If anyone doesn’t like what someone writes then just ignore them, either formally with the Ignore feature of just plain ignore it. Or folks can do like those under discussion have done and decide their time is best spent elsewhere. Other people have freedom of speech, we have freedom of choice.
