That forum was hard enough to post in- it must have been a freakin' nightmare to try and moderate.
That being said, if you could manage to peer through the foliage of blind wrath, name-calling, generalization, exaggeration, and denigration, you could start to just make out the outlines of that rare and elusive species:
a person with an opposing political view who could make a point.
I didn't find it that hard.
If a topic didn't appeal to me at first glance, I just never clicked on it. If once I got inside it was something other than what interested me, I left.
I never had to resort to putting posters on "ignore," sending negative reps or PMs, and I wouldn't think of reporting a poster because my feelings got hurt.
Granted, my contributions as "Publius" were largely philosophical (libertarian small "l" and Austrian), or off-hand remarks intended to highlight a flaw or fallacy in an argument, so I didn't get deeply involved in debate with too many people.
Here is another thought...if the mods were so harried by the neg reps, PMs, sigs, and reporting......SHUT OFF THE FEATURES.
Although this board was light years ahead of patriots.com when it started, it did NOT have all the features we now enjoy, and it is NOT what made this place special. This board became what it was without rep, or casino cash, or sigs, etc.
Enforce basic conduct rules. Disable features like rep or PMs which were being abused. Doesn't seem too hard to me.