Part of the perceived problem is that a topic will be discussed for quite a while... like a hundred posts or more and positions will harden and names will get called... and the mods lock it. Fine. Then the aggrieved parties start the SAME damned thread all over again because they aren't finished arguing. That gets locked a bit more quickly. Then the same parties start the same argument in 3 more forums because they can not and will not let go. Those get locked faster still because more mods are on the case. Someone just wandering in sees a batch of locked threads and has no idea that the topic got battered to death weeks ago and that the mods have to continue to squelch each eruption of it before the whole volcano blows up. AGAIN. As to companies and products that we use? That is a different matter from religion and politics. That DOES concern all of us in these forums as artists. If a model has problems, I want to know before spending my money on unusuable junk. If a company is plagiarizing, I want to know before spending my money and thus feeding a thief. If a broker doesn't answer emails or help customers, I want to know before buying something with no customer support. If we praise customer service or help promote a good product by word of mouth, we also have the right to say when something is shoddy and substandard. Otherwise, the praise is also totally meaningless... sort of like the meaningless ratings in the galleries where people don't dare say that bad art is anything less than "excellent". If there is no honesty, no perception, no evaluation on the merits, we might as well shut down all the forums and save the bandwidth. Carolly