There's been a lot of discussion of forum rules and policies recently, as well as criticism of the HubPages staff, so Paul and I agreed that a thread reiterating our position was in order.
The rules are very clear:
No personal attacks in the forums. Substantive debate and differences of opinion are okay. Name-calling, insults, threats, and passive-aggressive references to other users with whom you disagree are not.
Generally, HubPages likes to take a hands-off approach to moderation. We prefer not to get involved, wherever possible, and allow users to work out their own differences of opinion. We only step in where clear spam or personal attacks are involved. However, some users have expressed dissatisfaction with our supposed lack of action in certain instances.
In light of this, I hereby clarify our new policy:
Any personal attacks that are reported will result in a 3-day forum ban of the offending user. Repeated offences will result in a permanent forum ban. No exceptions for users "in good standing." No special considerations for context or provocation. (Paul's own father is currently serving a 3-day ban.)
Please note that moderating the forums is a very small portion of the work that needs to be done here at HubPages to keep the site running smoothly. Even if it is where you spend most of your time on the site, it cannot be where I or Paul spend most of ours.
I hope this satisfies everyone's concerns.