Very good question.
I spend probably 60% of my ATS time in the political forums and I see what I determine to be
some level of political baiting nearly every day.
I have seen fairly light baiting get called out by mods and I've also seen stuff that gets my hackles up ignored, even after I report it. So there
doesn't seem to be a real clear feel or consensus among moderators of what is acceptable or where the rhetoric crosses the line.
My thought on this is, when you have 25 or so different moderators, with different minds, judgments, opinions and interpretations of the T&C, you're
going to have different levels of application of same. That's totally understandable.
My personal opinion is that #15g is there so that when
someone violates the rule and gets dinged for it, there is something for staff to point to, to say, 'this is the rule you violated'.
In my experience, the staff likes to moderate with the lightest hand possible, allowing members to self-moderate as much as possible. They WANT to
treat us like the adults that we are.
So, they sometimes err on the side of lenience. But every once in a while, when a thread gets out of hand and
starts spiraling downward because of political rhetoric of a right vs left nature, then they have #15g to refer to, to stop the thread from
deteriorating altogether.
There are also cycles of political passion on ATS, depending on what is going on in the world. So, during the more fevered times, (just before an
election, for example) when the intensity of the rhetoric spikes sky high, #15g is there to nip it in the bud before it gets completely out of hand.
This is just the opinion of one member who doesn't really know what she's talking about.
But it's what I tell myself when I see political baiting
that goes unmoderated. And I would MUCH rather staff have a light hand in moderation than come down on every tiny infraction, causing us to be overly
cautious and hesitant when we post about passionate subjects, like politics.
edit on 10/18/2010 by Benevolent Heretic because: to add some stuff.