I have a problem with people making posts that do nothing but insult other members, add nothing to the current conversation, and seem to be intended to do nothing but purposefully provoke other posters to anger. There are a lot of direct insults being thrown around in the World Events forum.

I think you could've handled it maturely on your own. We're here to squelch heated arguements and serious harassments; we aren't your parents here to put someone on time out every time someone hurts your feelings. --ShlupQuack

So I have permission to mod-whore now, and attempt to discipline people on my own? And if I'm flamed, the official staff answer is "Tough crap, deal with it"? The "4-year-old" method of dealing with arguments is to do what we've been told to do, and use the Warn button, instead of arguing with other members? And the "mature" thing to do is to fight back with arguments until the argument is heated enough that the staff decides to actually get involved in it, or else to stand idly and do nothing by while being flamed for no reason? I'm just trying to get some clarification.

I publicly loathe all of you on staff, you bunch of mentally-diseased hicks, and I plan to place you all on Ignore because I'm tired of your ignorance. No, I don't believe that, but those EXACT phrases have been used in a thread in the World Events forum to refer to myself. Is that kind of thing allowed now? Can I just go in any forum I want and post that kind of thing? Perhaps you could clarify the definition of "flaming" to me, perhaps I don't understand, since the above is not considered "flaming". It would be very beneficial to know when I'm ACTUALLY being flamed, as opposed to when I just THINK I am, since from now on, I apparently have to deal with it myself, instead of involving the staff in my childish complaints.

Seriously, I do understand that just because someone uses the Warn thing, that doesn't mean staff is forced to act. But maybe I'm just a little upset over the apparent apathy being shown. If you've decided that flaming is OK now, maybe just in small amounts or something, I'll deal with it, and I won't complain further. Perhaps the MB is just a big joke now? It seems like a lot of stuff here is just a joke, now. This thread is certainly a joke to most of you. Perhaps my being insulted is also a joke. I'll deal with it, if that's the case.