Gene, I'm putting you down as one of the first to actually appreciate my wit. Thank you. It pleases me more than I can express.
In the continued spirit of being constructive, here's a few things to try. Please note that whining to a moderator or David is really never necessary. If we play with guns, we should be able to be grown ups here.
1. Post a message at the top of the board to not respond to inflamitory troll posts as the only reason they are made is certain people get off on it because it makes them feel like they have an impact on people and the world. Ignoring them takes the wind out of their sails and removes their motivation to post. Responding just encourages them and when we respond, even to tell them to shut up, we perpetuate it and have no one but our selves to blame.
2. If someone you know violates rule one above, email them privately and tell them to stop feeding the trolls. Arguing with them is hitting the ******** (right Gene, nothing racist at all, just a message about fights you can't win and the harder you struggle the worse it gets). Yelling at your friends in the troll post to stop feeding the trolls just, guess what, feeds the troll.
3. If someone says something that isn't true or defames anyone, immediately post how you don't think that sort of thing is the behaviour of a gentleman or lady and it has no place here. If the person keeps behaving badly, follow rule one. Don't get in a fight with someone who should be ignored.
4. If a regular forum member (not a troll) says "that southpark is a jerk", try just posting something like "Hey, I know southpark, and he's not a jerk at all. Would you be able to back that up if you were to say that to his face? What happened to make you think that?" Often people just hear things from other folks who are disgruntled and keep going on and on perpetuating the insults. If this doesn't work, follow rule one and just ignore them.
5. If someone like Grammie, for example, starts getting slammed by everyone, like he always does, take a moment to read what he has to say. If you think people are saying things like "that southpark is a jerk, his points should be ignored", consider taking a moment to say "well, that may be true, but I think his point makes sense this time." It sets a good example for people to judge things by the merits here. The name attached to a post, or abscence of a name, really doesn't have a bearing on the merit of the individual post. Even chronic liars tell the truth once in a while. Folks do okay here building or destroying their own reputations and probably don't need much help from the rest of us.
6. Some folks have legitimate reasons to hide their identity. Plus, email like yahoo allows fake names at that end anyway. Requiring non-anonymous emails only like your job may provide isn't really fair to our retired shooters and others for whom a free account is their only option. Also, posting email addresses only guarantees a data mining spider is going to nick your email addy and start spamming your email account.
However, requiring email confirmation, even to a fake name account you set up on hotmail, is a pain in the rear and may go a long way to curb some of the casual jerks. I support this requirement. Plus, if they get out of hand they can be banned and forced to go through the process of setting up another fake email account before they can post again here (and set up another fake account here). This pain in the backside, coupled with rule one above, is going to make it much too much trouble for zero fame and attention for them to bother. If they keep getting attention, public reprimands, etc., I'm sure they are not going to stop because they love the attention.
Finally, please don't go crying to David or a moderator to stop certain opinions you don't like. I freak out and am extremely offended when people say something stupid or that is factually incorrect. Do I have the right to insist all stupid posts be deleted because I'm offended? I'm being serious. I'm an extremely intelligent over-educated guy. You may have no idea how offensive some of the drivel I read can be to a person like me. That doesn't mean I have the right to get insipid, foolish, or downright stupid posts or posters removed.
Similarly, don't assume you are the final arbiter of what is offensive. Other people may not be bothered at all and may be equally offended that you are such a thin-skinned crybaby and sissy that they want your post deleted. Is that fair? Who makes those calls? Is that really how the site should be run? Really, the easiest answer is to simply stop reading the threads and or posts that may bother you and ignore them.
Get some self control. When I hear people freaking out over a television show I'm greatly disturbed they put so much energy into a campaign to get the show off the air but are too lazy to change the channel. Sometimes we really only have our selves to blame.