I would absolutely love to find out how Pahoran gets to act the way he does and not get banned. Same with Kemara. And in the thread where Fortigurn got banned, Hammer really was attacking hard and basically gets off with a slap on the wrist. It is interesting to know Hammer's been suspended before. But how he can continually get away with his attacks, and his assertions (read the thread about the church losing youth) that people who leave the church do so because they have moral issues and are just looking to shift the blame for their sins to someone else, is beyond me. Critics get called "mind readers" all the time for even thinking about why someone did this or that, and this whole "they just leave because they're sinning and need to blame it on someone else" crap is "mind reading" if ever there was. Same thing whenever a TBM on that board spots a critic questioning proof with respect to God and insinuates that someone's an adulterer. In fact, recently one of the TBMs, I forget who, actually replied to The Dude in a thread asking if his wife knew he was having an affair or some crap like that. If that shouldn't get one banned on MAD, I don't know what should.
I can tell you how Pahoran got away with it on Z - he and the board's owner (whom I do not believe participates on boards anymore anywhere) were cyber friends from way back when they were dueling buddies on ARM. When I was a mod on Z, along with Jan and Cal (whom I suspect are now mods on MAD), the most we could do with the owner's consent was to ban Pahoran for a couple of months. Then we'd have to let him back and see if he would now behave. It was my biggest "issue" as a moderator - I kept telling them as long as we kept letting Pahoran back in, because EVERYONE knew that any critic who acted like he did would have been banned permanently LONG ago, we lose some "moral authority", so to speak, with other posters. But it was useless - the board owner was too fond of him to allow us to do that.
Also, with some exceptions, many believers really like Pahoran and think he really demolishes critics. I think he acts the way some of them would like to, but hold themselves back, frankly. I did know a couple of believers who wanted to see Pahoran go as much as I did on Z because he gave their "side" a bad name, but they were the minority. Most seem to silently cheer him on.
I do think that believers who post on MAD are often very frustrated and angry because they really have a to try and make lemons from lemonade, so to speak. It's a hard job. Funny how they resist admitting that the apologist's job is much harder than the critic's job. I mean, really, let's get a reality check here. Who is going to have an easier job - someone criticizing Joseph Smith's polyandry, for example, or someone defending it??? I think that underlying frustration is why believers prefer the Animal Farm of Mad, where they are more equal. They "deserve" to be more equal (as far as moderating goes).
Seth, I believe you are the one who called Mad a "TBM" board, and that is very true. It's not a debate board at all, although it presents itself as one. It is a TBM board and everything is designed to help along the TBM argument, most particularly how it is moderated.