Several members at different times, as you well know. Read posts over the past couple of weeks. Sometimes the abuse is in response to provocation or abuse from another member. That makes it hard to moderate. The only easy solution is to delete a series of posts but that would usually destroy the entire thread. The problem has been that some personally abusive posts have also contained detailed and reasoned argument, which presents a problem for the moderators. Sometimes it is possible to edit a post, at other times to delete an entire post, but it is not easy.
Would it work if the personal abuse was deleted, allowing the "detailed and reasoned argument" to remain? If such isn't possible, then I feel it's only fair that whole post, however detailed and reasoned, should be sacrificed. Those who will have picked up on the information, will run with it, ignoring the abuse. It's not perfect, but what is? It might just work.
Regarding abuse, I've not contributed very much, of late, nonetheless, during this time, my name has come up in an abusive and derogatory manner. I've chosen not to respond but I can't fail to recognize it as abuse deliberately used to incite abuse, giving the original abuser the chance to claim personal attack as being the reason. Over the past few weeks this has occurred frequently, on a very different level from the usual 'spats'. As active membership always fluctuates, it's not possible to say that it's the reason for the general decline in posting.
