I hate to sound all serious, but that Roosevelt thread was embarrassing to this forum and the community in general. It does not help the 2A cause when outsiders view such a thread. I am also disappointed in the lack of moderation in that thread. I am all for open conversation, but when it diverges from the original topic and deteriorates to the level that it did, its usefulness as a topic should be either A) put back on track, even if hands need slapping or B) Locked and possibly non-useful conversation not pertaining to the original topic be removed. IMHO that thread in its entirety should be nuked. Moderators are indeed entitled to an opinion but their first usefulness to the community is to attempt to remain impartial and make these decisions based on the good of the forum and community while setting aside the desire to voice personal opinion.
I used to feel the same way. I got tired of seeing almost nothing but off-topic crap, irrelevant stupid comments, Gongho on every thread, and attacks from a half dozen regulars for saying anything about them! Reports to the moderators resulted in, "If you don't like what so-and-so says, just ignore him."
I guess those rules we all agreed to follow when creating accounts were just a formality. Like gun laws, if the forum rules aren't being enforced, people are free to do whatever the hell they want.
So, now I ignore the posts where people are just trying to entertain each other. If it causes problems with the public's perception of this community, then the blame is on the a**holes who treat this like their own social networking site -- and on the mods for not acting like mods.
Like everything else in life, you have to lay the blame where it belongs before you can stop the bad behavior. If the majority don't see anything wrong and are allowed to continue without even a warning, you might as well keep your concerns about public perception to yourself and start a new site that has at least some minimum standards that are actually enforced.
*Que the bashers' replies*