The principles on which a good board runs

[Gurdur]

From this thread here, a fair few points have emerged already. So I thought I would start this thread to start collecting such points before they fly away from the cyber-dream-catcher or cyber-butterfly-net, depending on which similie you prefer.

The below are some of the principles to emerge already from that discussion; and I'm sure people have more to contribute.
____________________

1. Truly challenging discussions
   .
2. Making friends
   .
3. Challenging such as Creationists
   .
4. Secrecy breeds discontent --> transparency and transparent appeals processes essential
   .
5. Transparency is easy (given committed masochists people)
   .
6. Democracy -- much pretended to on web-boards, often highly over-rated
   .
7. A haven in some area
   .
8. Mutual respect to be promoted
   .
9. Structuring of rules so they cannot be used to protect the guilty
   .
10. Free, wide-ranging discussions
    .
11. Lots of opportunities for simple fun
    .
12. Ensuring genuine interaction between admin and posters
    .
13. Threaded format, PM's, sigs, hang-outs (multiple different hang-outs on a big board?)
    .
14. A chance to see or have bizarre conversations with odd characters
    .
15. Hammering trolls
    .
16. Protection of deeply thoughtful discussions
    .
17. careful moderation, careful splitting
    .
18. Broad rules without legalese
    .
19. Open principle of "natural justice" being seen to be implemented
    .
20. As with pornography, things like preaching racism may be very difficult to legally define, but very easy to see in practice