Where moderation steps in

As someone who gets flagged a lot, I do feel sometimes that it's just clamping down on "off topic". That said, if things drift off topic that can let in bad behaviour.

In the old days when it was just Jon, there wasn't much calling out of off-topic (to be honest there wasn't much calling out), but LWN has grown and I think there's also more people looking for places they can stir up trouble (I gather there's quite a lot of Russian "espionage/subversion" going on), so I can understand the team clamping down.

But I do feel it doesn't seem there's much attempt to clamp down on the real bad boys - although the problem there is one person's bad boy is another person's "agent provocateur" is another person's "just asking questions".

I think PJ's rule of "if I wouldn't have it in my living room, I won't have it on my site" was a good one, but it relies on getting to know your posters ...

Cheers,
Wol