But you do understand that type of response is exactly what a lot of those people want. It gives them the fuel to keep going. Basically what happens in that situation is the people doing pre-emptive complaining are giving drugs to a bunch of drug addicts...AKA, they LOVE it. 

As for the lack of moderation, each report is carefully reviewed to see if the person that is being reported should get moderated. If they didn't get moderated, then chances are what they said wasn't trolling/flaming (or it was borderline and we keep an eye on them to see if they do that type of thing often).

It happened two days ago, I clicked Report, and nothing happened.  If the process for reporting infractions is broken then that needs to be fixed or we need to be told the process is broken and what alternative is in place.

We were told, not too long ago, NOT to message moderators individually.  That doing so may get us banned.  We were also told to use the report button, and to use it only once per issue. 

Are we getting a complete reversal on policy now?

When I was a moderator on another board, we got notice of any infraction, we posted a comment in a thread regarding the submission, what we did, and why.  If the notification required follow-up with the person, we posted that information as well, unless it was "private".  So generally, any communication with the person who notified and the person who violated board rules was included.  This was to ensure everyone knew what was going on and everything was above board.

As a forum member, I want the rules to apply equally.  Right now they aren't.  There are people here who may not be getting away with murder, but they're certainly able to walk around and freely slash people with knives and no moderator bats an eye.  I shouldn't have to have a preferred moderator to communicate with, the moderation should be unbiased.  If it isn't unbiased, if the point is to have moderations with specific biases who offset the moderation of other moderators with specific biases, then there is a real issue with moderation.  

I guess the real question now is, what happens when I click "Report".  What happens to that report?  How does the moderation staff know that something was or wasn't reported, how do you know what action or inaction took place, and the reason/logic behind why that action or inaction took place?  Because honestly, up to this point I figured when I clicked report that every moderator knew what was reported and why it wasn't actived upon or if it was why it was. 

Keeping the quote tree.

I understand it completely.  I said what it is, not that I agree with it.

The fact is, if someone is commenting in that manner, they're doing so because that person has repeatedly trolled and gotten away with it enough times that in a way it is an ironic joke.  You say you keep an eye on it, I say bullshit.  That is absolute fucking bullshit.  Had I been a moderator on this site there are a fair few people I would have put in their place because I can see the bullshit they're trying to pull.  Maybe it wouldn't have been a ban, but I would have let them know quite plainly that they better knock it off or they would be.

Here, it goes on and on and on.  And when someone finally gets frustrated and fed-up with it and lashes out, they get banned.

I don't think that at all. Most of the new mods are pretty cool like Yo John for example. I remember when he wasn't a mod he mostly sided with Xbox but now I see him banning all types of fanboys left and right! There are a couple of the older mods that, in my opinion, are waaaay too strict and they often ban people simply because they don't agree with their opinion. 

No one ever agrees. For that matter, I do not care much.

You should probably delete that just in case.