[Personal Note: I’m just back 18 hours in the hospital, for the second day, babysitting my father-in-law. I do not have time to read through the massive thread to see whether what tomndebb did was “correct.” I am therefore issuing rulings to get things quieted down.]
Thus;
Scissorjack: Please stop the junior modding. It is not your business to decide what’s a personal insult, nor who’s being a jerk. In fact, most of your comments are dead wrong: most of what tomndebb (for instance) is saying is directed at other posters’ posts/comments, not at the posters themselves. That’s NOT rules violation. If you think there’s a rules violation, please report it (little ! in red triangle in upper right corner of post) rather than take on the moderating role yourself.
tomndebb: It’s clearly a good idea, when closing a thread, to indicate why. In this particular case, I believe you were wrong not to be handing out warnings, however many. The decision to close the thread, I agree with. The thread closing was not because of the views being presented, but because of the train-wreck in terms of personal insults.
Everyone: Please. No personal insults in ATMB. Not directed at mods, not from mods directed at posters. Most of the what’s posted here is actually OK. The few bits that are probably technically over the line, I apologize, I do not have time to go through and sort out: they’re on all sides, however. Calling someone’s post a “rant” (for example) is not a comment about the person, but about what they’re saying and how they’re saying it.