The moderation by post was a sarcastic example of over moderation.

I just feel that you can loosen the reigns a little with posting active links. The more things you can do to make things easier/faster for your web site users the more they are inclined to stick around. I believe allowing live links will not be a big concern, sure you'll have the odd troll posting a xxx site. But with even your small team of moderators it wouldn't last long. Then you take action and ban the user, suspend his posting privs or in some cases a private or public reprimand will suffice. IIRC the vb software has a report post option that users can report offensive material as well.

Most of my db experience is as a user but have been a moderator on a board and an owner of a small board as well. Most of my online time is spent on boards of various subjects with varied degrees of decorum. I've seen alot of them come and go and some grow beyond what one could imagine. Sometimes good forums die for strange reasons. I'll look around a little and tell you what I think.