I'm not sure what the criteria is, but I can tell you the consistancy of the moderations are very different, so I think the 'rules' somewhat are in the hands of each indivdual moderator and the mood they are in that day.
On one of my other chit chat sites the moderators are pretty darn strict and would have closed that thread long before it got to page 2. In fact, it would have been completely deleted.
I enjoy the ability to hear both sides of topics, however, the name calling can sometimes get out of hand and does nothing productive.
[ March 18, 2003, 09:44 AM: Message edited by: MJ19 ]