How do you balance moderation style with being laid back?

[Shawn Gossman]

Do you agree that the moderation style on a forum should be fairly laid back?

With that being said, how do balance your moderation styles and being a laid-back forum admin at the same time?

Do you find yourself wanting to immediately moderate a member but then you step back and ask yourself if maybe what they did wasn't as bad you thought?

What do you think about the topic of moderation vs. being a laid-back community in general?

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I always prefer the laid back style to moderation, as it is not always obvious on what is going on, unless something is direct on the issue.

My experience with a forum I've been on recently, reinforces my belief that moderation shouldn't be so direct, if you don't have the help to see if there are any other issues other than the one you can see.

There are times where I know I need to directly interact with someone, and work on some prevention, as some people will eventually find a way to cause issues, if they think they can skirt rules by potential gray areas in disobeying rules.

But overall, if someone isn't going out of their way to get around rules purposely, I won't normally give warnings, and just remind them that they might need to double check things in the future, if there might be a question on the subject.