Things don't get torn-up so that others can watch, but others will watch whenever things get torn up

Apart from the physical aspect, fights over which figure or program is best are no different to fights in the street.  And just as in the street, a crowd gathers.  My recently locked thread generated a lot more view traffic per hour during the time it remained before deletion than it ever did while not displaying the locked symbol next to it - a lot more.

People thought 'oooh, locked thread, I wonder what that's all about?'

Nothing wrong with that because it's obvious people are going to be more interested in something exciting than something that might otherwise not interest them.  It's just the way it is which is why I think the mods here need more power to let things be, let issues repair themselves or whatever.

I remember on the DAZ forum, there was a few years where there was no mod at all as far as we could tell.  There were quite often fights, sometimes big ones, but the people involved in them always seemed to work it out, they're still forum buddies, and that might not have been the case if they weren't allowed to be adults.  If those arguments were controlled, those people might still be wanting to get their point across to this day, the tension would still be there.

I think the main problem about deleting stuff and locking stuff is that one way or another, an opinion is being silenced, and most adults don't like that.  If a lot of the arguments here were left to die out naturally, there would be a better community spirit because of it.  If you cut a thread when two people are arguing then it's never resolved.  I think thats why the arguments always 'reignite', because again, there exists a chance to get their point across, the one that was silenced previously.  If it keeps getting silenced, the want to get it across is always there.  This is why Clarkie's TITS system would never work, because once a person is trying to get a point across, doing so in private has no validity because they want to, understandably, rectify or challenge something in public that was said in public.

So basically that's my take on it.  No amount of goodwill on behalf of the mods or admin will change the way people are, despite their best intentions.  It's like I said directly to DAZ once: it is the adults that have the credit cards, not the children - so stop catering for children.  Adults will always have opinions, and adults will always argue.  No amount of contests, clever gimmicks, suspension of members, warnings, or whatever else will ever change that, despite their best intentions.

All that sort of thing ever does is keep it mounting up untill the next thread comes along where they can let rip again.