Zen, my 2 cents (hope this is permitted, or can only mods respond to suggestions ?)

The problem is - Whats funny to some leaves other people doing that shady pissed off stare... for instance, I didn't find the pretzel jokes funny at all... So how do the mods determine that and keep an even balance ? It's pretty hard to forsee the reaction of all the members. To safeguard against this they've instituted a policy that helps prevent these reactions by eliminating the two topics for which these situations usually develop from... politics and relgion... I think alot of people have a hard time accepting that since we're such a close knit group here ; we figure a spirited debate now and then is a good thing... The problem is, anytime a "spirited debate" that involves politics or religion comes up, 9 times out of 10 there ends up being insults thrown around and feelings hurt (the 9/11 period comes to mind). When there's a harmless joke about a politician, three replies later there's someone making an innappropriate comment (i.e. the pretzel thread and the "stupidity" undertones that ran throughout it) IMO it's really just a matter of accepting that there are an infinite number of other sites on the net for discussion of these topics - the focus around here is Simpsons collectibles, and Moe's is a bonus area where we can gab... But there have to be limits set... There are reasons this place remains so peaceful and friendly, IMO those rules are one of those reasons.

As far as limiting the rest of the banned topics, this is a children friendly site, thus the need to no curse, or discuss sex or drugs. And the rest of the stuff they ban discussion about (mp3 talk, mod chips etc) is just plain illegal, no real grey area there.

Phew... There's my thoughts on the subject...