Most people here are talking about gaming discussions where I think the moderation is fine, but I think the general discussion and non-gaming topics need stricter mods. For example, threads about homosexuality, religion or politics (middle-eastern politics to be more specific) create a lot of stir, and I frequently see lots of unnecessary flaming and ignorance from certain users. I won't call out names or posts, but I've reported quite a few posts in those threads only to see them being ignored and the users unpunished. Maybe it's because the mods don't understand the topic or the situation at hand? But these topics are very sensitive to certain users and although the poster might think his posts are expressing an opinion, they are indirectly offending other users (I've been a victim of this many times). In general, I think threads about religion and sexuality (perceived in a negative way) should NOT be allowed or should at least be carefully moderated by mods that understand the topic.

Looser in the gaming section, stricter in other sections.

I made a non-serious joke about hardcore gamers, not directed at anyone, and not in a serious tone (and several laughed), and I got banned 2 weeks for racism; the moderator identified hardcore gamers as a large identifiable group of people, like people of a specific race, nationality, sexual orientation, or religion. This is the equivalent of getting banned for making a joke about Manchester or Chelsea football fans.

In the non-gaming forums, people say much worse things about Arabs and Chinese in these and do not get banned; (yet people will get banned for criticisizng the US). There is also a HUGE amount of very open prejudice against religion and religious people (I am not talking the philosophical conversations, but rather outright blatant insults), and these users keep going at it and never get banned. These are real identifiable groups of people.

I agree with this, and what the poster above you said. It almost seems as though the current mods either don't understand the non-gaming discussions, or don't have the time to moderate them, or simply don't care.

I reckon it's a mixture of all 3. Maybe mods exclusive to/specialising in different sections? So when you report a post, it goes straight to a certain mod who checks it from there?

This is why we need more mods. I don't see the advantage of only having 4. The site used to have 20 I believe, and nothing slipped through the net. The more mods, the more vigorous, and if they abuse the power, ban them straight away. Seems logical to me.

I will forever say that I was banned for no reason... I stopped using this site for months after that happened... Pissed me off so bad I didn't want to come back. Still pisses me off, just thinking about it. Freaggin' insulting as hell.

So, I'm voting "no."

I've even had warnings because I didn't quote the person I was responding to.  "Oh, now that I know who you were talking to, it makes so much more sense now."

What?...

So, I more often, on this site, click the QUOTE button so that problem never happens again.

EDIT:

Wow, I just read the posts on this page... I totally agree.  Moderation should never be done by sensitive people, though, it should, at the same time, be done by people who care about the quality of the community.  Talk to someone.  Tell them what they've done wrong.  Be nice (or not).  I know that back when I had moderation (well, admin, but, there, we had mods, admins, and super admins) duties of a chatroom, before it closed, it was okay to be a little brash, as long as you're pretty reserve with your powers.  And, whenever an argument was started by me, generally, no matter how it turned out, I was not allowed to click that ban button.  And, coming from a community where you could swear as much as you wanted (which resulted in it not happening too often) what happened to me seemed to be the most minor thing to get banned for.

I mean, somtimes, I'd get "Sup, bitch?" and not do anything about it.  Someone called me a name... So what, shrug it off.  Warning them for it would make me just that.  But, you weren't allowed to insult mods or admins, (just each other)

Ugh... rambling.. I miss that place.  There was another that came up, but, because I didn't give certain people temporary admin, they wouldn't let me be admin at the new place, so I never went back.  I guess what I'm trying to say, is everyone needs to learn to chill out, unless they feel threatened, or disrespected, and, not get hurt that a PC fan made a negative comment about PS3, like PS3 is their mother, or something.  Though, gaming systems keep kids quiet, now-a-days.

well, I put stricter, mostly because I rarely see moderator action. But maybe that's just because I don't look for it.
But actually wen I do see it, it usually seems like a harsh punishment, even the punishment had good intentions. I think a warning system would be effective for unintentional mishaps, or if it was obvious the user did not intend to stir controversy.

Almost a Week gone by. Gonna bump this now.

Poll is interesting and I wanna say that you guys need to clamp down hard on obvious trolls/ trouble causers.

Thread-shitting doesn't seem to qualify as trolling here, which is interesting to me

For the sake of not having to make a separate post wherein I explain myself: threadshitting is probably best exemplified by going into a hype topic, like "ZOMG MGS5 ANNOUNCED" and bitching about how much Metal Gear Solid sucks, or how much better Splinter Cell/Thief is, or similar behaviors

We're definitely seeing that stricter is more popular than looser now, and pretty much as popular as keeping the status quo. I suppose that's something to bear in mind.