[Petra Jane]

With the old forums moderation was at a minimum because problems were rare. The new forums changed that as we were under numerous and nasty nightly attacks using hit and run tactics. Mornings here involved a lot of work, cleanup and damage control. Users were beginning to feel unsafe posting here and had said so. While most of these attacks were from a "Yahoo group", the threat is still real as they have not changed their methods. The attacks ceased when we started automatic registration and instituted moderated posts.

Please do not confuse moderation with censorship. All opinions are still welcome and encouraged as long as the posts are within our rules that foster respect for every user regardless of opinion. No moderator will reject a post based on adverse opinion alone. Here it's the rules that count for post approval.

What we have done is remove the fangs from our attackers. They are powerless to turn these forums into a battleground, or to conduct their nightly raids. Moderators and myself can now sleep at night without worrying about walking into a minefield every morning. What we've done is working. How I wish the world were a wonderful place so we didn't have to worry about such things. I am opposed to over moderating and censorship. However circumstances beyond our control forced us into taking the steps we have taken. It would be foolish to remove defense measures that keep our forums a pleasant place to be.

Since we have added more moderators the lag between posts is minimal. Only early morning posts have any noticeable delay. We will continue to work to make posts appear almost instantly.

If you haven't already done so, please do check out the Rules of the Forum that you have agreed to on joining.