Ava wrote:

QUOTE:
Its much harder when it has something to do with your friends here.

I think that's what many of us are trying to reiterate...it shouldn't matter if it's your friends breaking the rules or someone you've just met. The decision is not personal, it's professional. Everyone has to follow the same set of rules, regardless of if you know them or not. I've had to warn and mediate issues that involved my friends and non-friends all the time on boards/lists/communities and I'm not going to automatically side with my friends just because. If someone breaks the rules, they've got to know it.

Moderation has to be fair and just. Everyone's given the same amount of reminders, everyone's given the same amount of warnings, everyone's given the same amount of chances to curb their behavior, and everyone's banned for the same amount of times they disregard all the previous attempts to have them follow the rules. And if a problem arises between two members, a moderator cannot just side with the people they know because you have got to be impartial. If a member cannot, at the end of the day, remain an impartial moderator then maybe it's not the best role to serve.