I'm a moderator. I had no idea people couldn't ignore me. News to me. Personally, I'd be fine with people having me on an ignore list. It makes no difference to me. Yes, some people would miss the warning "Please refrain from personal attacks" general messages or whatever, but I suppose they could be PM'd through a general mod account or whatever. I don't really understand the limitations of the website itself, so I don't know what the technical solution is. But I do know I don't care if I'm ignored. Some people have already told me they flip past my posts. That's OK. It's not like what I have to say would be interesting or useful to everyone anyway. Such is the nature of life.
Second, to answer CZZ's question- we don't get paid. Why do it at all, then? Well, I do this for free because I value interfaith dialogue and I'm grateful to have somewhere I can have some interesting conversation. Plus, I read and type quickly, so it doesn't tax my time too much. I'm also a mod on another site that isn't related to interfaith at all, and none of us get paid there, either. I don't know if anyone gets paid anywhere for moderating. It's more like a hobby.
I don't like everything about this site. I don't really know anyone who likes everything about any community, virtual or otherwise. I just figure you find whatever community works best for your purposes and put up with stuff you don't like. And if there's too much stuff you don't like about somewhere, you find another place. I've done it in the past, even with online communities I was a member in for years. No one is forced to be anywhere and converse with anyone. So it is a mystery to me why anyone would waste time with a community that annoys or perturbs them unless the benefits outweigh the costs.
It's free to start your own proboards discussion board, by the way. I've done it before for classes and for small group discussion with family/friends. You can even decide if it is open to everyone or only to approved members. So if someone has a vision for a different type of community, I don't see any reason why people aren't generating their own community with their own rules (or lack thereof) and so on. That is, I see no reason why except laziness. It's a lot of work to set up and maintain online discussion forums. So people tend to like to complain about ones that already exist rather than setting up their own.
Websites belong to the person who creates and maintains them. If someone wants something according to their own vision, why not just create your own?
