The moderation has followed through my example since the beginning of these forums. I hate that I have to waste my time writing this out because I've done this many times and I shouldn't be doing this anymore. (If everyone hates the moderation, then it's working, as the moderation isn't for anyone or everyone, it's for the boards themselves, everyone follows by our guidelines and for it to be fair, everyone is in the eyes of the rules.) But let's start.
1. I checked this topic the moment you made it, chose not to make a responce because I didn't see a single report. Maybe they didn't go through, or maybe they were already completed.
2. Moderators don't sit and lurk topics unless they're reported. They may be on the site but that doesn't mean they have to sit and view every post made on your topics. We arn't waiting for bad responces, we're waiting for those reports... of which arn't being made enough. You of all people should know this, and because it was a slight mishap in time in how your topic was treated, it doesn't mean we don't care, it just means we arn't perfect, and I'm sorry we can't deliver perfection.
3. I have an old written guideline in our moderator section that was created in July to help us moderate the forums then (when they were much worse) which does not concern any of you, so yes we do follow by a structure. People should realise that when their posts are deleted, and if they want to play dumb they can always Pm the culprit that was moderating your topic, or cn wait for a responce from them on the "closed" topic.
4. I have created new guidelines that will be out eventually once everyone has gone through with them and added their input and edits. I've worked hours on them, and it takes many more to perfect it. They need to be balanced out between stictness and structure, something that is important to keeping a community going. Fair in judgement, fair in balance, fair in content.
5. Fair to mod. A judgement call from moderators that we've followed by, because that's how I did it when I was basically the only moderator of these boards back in PW's public Opening. [if it's one comment, one topic, or one troll/flame/bait. The person will get off eassily, because here we give any chances. But if the person intends on making moderation tough by posting non-stop, not listening to the moderation warnings, then they get themselves banned. That's the most reasonable answer I can give.] Of course there are different circumstances where one post can break more than one rule which can result in more than a verbal warning or a false 20% warn raise with no suspension, but that's how the judgement comes to play. We have trial moderation in PW to see where our mods base their ability to judge from, and how they go through with it. The fact that we have a very diverse team is why we are still successful. When a moderator hasn't a clue on what to do about a person, they revert back to my old guidelines or come to me personally, as I usually don't moderate anymore but ban/suspend.
6. At PW, we focus on a less strict environment, free to roam boards with the hint of moderation at your doorstep. It's why we have the balance that we have and it's why we act the way we do. As staff we're forced to be fair in all areas, which is why everyone will complain, because no one will get their way, ever. And that's how we run this place, we don't have to follow any other site's guidelines.
7. The moderation here isn't bad at all, or at any case horrible. The staff here does more than it needs to, it gives many chances to the many children here and still has to deal with them the next day, because that's what we do. They deal with the constant beat downs from the members here, and still put their best foot foward. They're immune to immature critism and immune to ignorance, because they see it everyday. It's important that you keep rules relevant, but it's also important to keep activity to an average state. That's what's important and that's what matters, it's a complex system of keeping things balanced on both sides and yes there's a lot to it. I.E. Contradiction to each other, but in order to be balanced, we have to contradict in many areas, but that's how discussions are formed and how things get done. We can't be perfect, we all make mistakes and that's to be expected, and that's where private messaging comes in.
As for me, this site knows I'm easy to click the suspend/ban button because I need to balance out the lightly salted moderation that we have here. I know that all our moderators let a lot of things slide, because that's how I was when the chaos started back in July, and it was for a greater reason. I can vouch for our staff team (Moderators) that they are very mature, very easy to listen to, and are very understandable. If anyone should have a question about their moderation there should never be a problem with PMing them, and if there is that's why Karl and I are here. The fact that you expect a staff member to "troll" you or "flame" you is ridiculas and you should realise that you asked nice on our forums, you'll get a legit answer.
So next time if you have a huge issue like this, I'll reccomend like always, that you PM me, or an Admin, because we actually respond back within the day; and if the person isn't there to respond, someone will be. Otherwise, there isn't much left to be said.