It seems to me that Spec is wanting to discuss "at what degree" of
infringment of the TOS do we pull the plug on abusive users and threads.
I don`t think that can be answered. It needs to be decided on a case by case review.
While it is very clearly printed out in the most generic and standard terms...it includes lot`s of restrictions and rules that many of us bend or break occasionally,

and frankly alot of this is relative to the individual poster/viewer.
You could follow the TOS to the letter, and especially with THIS community, you would be whacking threads and users daily ; or as it IS now, while there is little "official enforcement" of crack-head posts; more consciencious people tend to step in and try to cool things abit...or "CITE" a more reliable take on some devisive issue. And sometimes those people become embroiled in something personal and vindictive with original posters or friends of posters...etc..
If one of these persons is a moderator it can turn moderating into a very thankless and nasty chore...and I don`t blame Spec for pondering on this
puzzling predicament he finds himself in occasionally....
The terms :Thou Shalt NOT
post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
harm minors in any way;
harasses or advocates harassment of another person;
upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "chain letters," or any other form of unsolicitedmass mailing or "spamming";
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........and on and on and....there couldn`t possibly be a uniform code that can cover all this, especially in such a diverse community as this with "FUCK" threads and people with usernames like "Evi1" or "the Wop" and points of view all over the Planet...and beyond.
I would suggest a PRIVATE review thread for discussion and review of the individual threads or offensive posters for a period of a couple days for moderators and admins to weigh in on. Mods are Mods because they are trusted members of the community and I think their opinions should be respected, and they should be depended upon as our representatives.
Make it a VOTE(you could set each case up as a poll) of trusted members of the community, say a consensus of 4 out of 5 and then "damn the bridges" and cut the thread....
Someone has to make these challenging calls and if we can`t trust our moderators to do it???....we`re doomed
I also don`t see why there couldn`t be a thread for announcing decisions regarding the offending topics/users and feedback from other users.
All very ugly and democratic, I know, but it`s all we`ve got.