buttman writes:

The problem with most of these "moderated" web forums is that they
seem to focus their moderation on protecting the thin-skinned from
being offended by cuss words and insults, while they let the actual
discussions degrade into meaningless, (all though polite) trite crap.

For instance its very common to see a thread in a moderated forum
about a plane crash. But instead of the discussion being about the
actual crash, all you'll see is page after page of replies like "RIP",
"This is sad my prayers go out to the victims", "RIP ", "this is sad
RIP", etc. Its nice that people are being supportive and polite, but
whats the point? Who wants to read that? If I were moderating, that is
the exact kind of thing I'd be removing. The same goes for when a
thread diverts off into a personal chit chat session between two
acquaintances.

That's because you cannot have a meaningful discussion among people with
differences of opinion without the risk of controversy and conflict.

If the discussion forum is peaceful, it will also be boring, with no real
discussion of substance. If the discussion forum discusses real issues of
real interest, the intolerant among the participants will complain of being
offended and will rapidly resort to personal attacks.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too.