I am not a moderator here in these forums,,, but I am elsewhere in a few forums.
IT is our job (Both there and here) to encourage the free flow of INFORMATION.
But all too often in some forums people kind of go into the human torch mode and FLAME ON, Resorting to name calling and personal attacks and things like that.
When this happens a Moderator has no choice but to take action. Sometimes it is deleting a specific reply, sometimes it is editing, sometimes closing or locking a thread, (IN which case it will soon disappear from your "new posts" screen) and sometimes it is blacklisting a member.
I do not always agree with the moderators in some forums. but all in all I think they do a fantastic job.. and I know how much they get paid. (Paid, What's Paid?, You mean we get PAID!,, not that I've ever seen.)