This is actually off-topic for Room 101 as general discussion of moderation. I have moved it to the Biscuit Bar (chas49)
I have been a long term user of the internet and although I did not have much engagement with usenet I have had some with various types of online messaging systems and fora.
It is an accepted fact that when people use pseudonyms they can be at times more rude and abusive than when they send messages with their own name.
I think also with the restrictions on personal movement and the use of online systems we are seeing perhaps a greater amount of tension in society and this may also be reflected in things like the attack on the Capitol.
Unsurprisingly TLF will to some extent reflect changes more widely and I have identified more recently a greater willingness from some posters to make insulting and defamatory postings about other users (including myself). I probably use half a dozen forums at the moment and have found myself to be subject to more abuse in this forum than the others. I post under my own name in all of them.
I have a lot of experience with defamation having issued and won three claims in the high court since 2018 and having issued another claim in 2020 which I expect to win. These all relate to comments made by others on the internet. I am also assisting with two other linked cases where I am not formally a party. I previously won a case in 1992, but did not need to issue proceedings between 1992 and 2018 as people were generally sensible.
On the other hand I am perhaps more willing to ignore such comments than many people as I know how much work there is involved in legal proceedings and the details of how things work out. Hence more recently I have simply taken to use the formal "foe" function to ignore certain posters. From a purely personal basis I would probably simply retire from the forum rather than start a legal process.
I accept entirely the rationale for people to post under pseudonyms although I do not do that myself.
However, under Section 5 of the 2013 Defamation Act for an internet organisation to be able to defend itself from a defamation claim it needs to be able to provide sufficient details of posters so that a claimant can issue proceedings against the poster even if that is not in the jurisdiction.
The issues, therefore, I would suggest are worth thinking about for the moderators are
a) Should the board moderation policy perhaps be a bit more active in discouraging direct personal criticism, abuse and defamatory comments or just wait for posts to be reported. Other forums that I participate in have a more active moderation policy.
b) Does the board have sufficient information about people posting to have a defence under S5 DA 2013.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/20 ... /5/enacted
As I said earlier I perhaps have a greater tolerance to abuse than many. I take the view that if people wish me to communicate with them they should be reasonably polite. Also I always have the simple option of logging off.
However, there may be others who when subjected to the same abuse have a thinner skin and kick off. As I know that can get very expensive (including for the forum as a whole) very quickly if people have not taken the correct steps to ensure that they are protected.
I also take the view that it would be generally good for people to be polite to each other and that if the forum continues tolerating more and more abuse that this will change the culture of the forum for the worse.