This merry band

That may be true but I am particularly sensitive to being called an anti-Semite and a Hamas supporter, especially by a moderator who should be held to a standard that is higher than members.

If a member calls me either of those things it is somewhat par for the course and a sign that they have no better argument but whether people like it it not a moderator is 'bound' by a code of 'decency' that exceeds his/her member status, therefore if a moderator calls one an anti-Semite or a Hamas supporter it should be a serious, reasoned accusation not an attempt at a slur.

 When it suits your agenda, you dig your heels in and refuse to do anything at all of your own volition. You said yourself that Bentley's offending remark was removed immediately. It was a clear cut case. So, why did it take so long? Ordinarily, there would have been no urgency. But the thread still existed while you were making up your mind. Meanwhile, Bentley was doubling down, and repeating his nonsense. So, the reasonable thing to do would have been to act promptly. Why the need for a week's deliberation in a clear cut case? Why the reluctance to act? The reasonable conclusion is that it's breach of the rule that counts, but who broke the rule and who the offended member is. 

Buccaneer didn't clearly break the rules? Are you serious? There couldn't have been a more blatant breach of the rules. You have some eccentric viewpoints, Orac. But that one really takes the biscuit.

And why there should be AT MOST only three mods.

I have to say this thread has certainly drawn back the curtain on a really funny comedy .

Anyone know a forum moderated by adults?

In this particular instance, anyone would have been flabbergasted by the mod team's conclusion.

Every time the transgender issue was raised, the usual suspects would come along and impute paedophile motives to anyone who disagreed with their view of the matter. Every single time. And each time, getting the mod team to do anything about it was like trying to pull teeth.

In Bentley's case, it took over a week. Meanwhile, the thread remained an open sore. 

Then another thread on the transgender topic opens, and the usual suspects pile on again. I say that the issue is one best left to medical professionals, and Buccaneer calls me Goebbels. I report it as a breach of the Nazi rule. The mod team considers it, and the decision comes back that Buccaneer hadn't called me a Nazi; rather, he had called me a propagandist who just happened to be Nazi. No foul. 

The majority of the active mod team (you, Pacifico, and Tinculin) are very much on the Right of the transgender issue, all of you being very much against. The absurd conclusion that I hadn't been called a Nazi doesn't make any sense until that fact is taken into consideration.

Then I open a thread in the part of the forum specifically set aside to discuss the moderation of the forum. I raise the issue in a thread. As always, the usual suspects come along and take digs. I ignore them. I make my point in restrained and moderate language. Tinculin turns up and hands down a two week suspension for questioning the decision.

You said I was flabbergasted. Yes, I am, quite frankly. I'm flabbergasted that your first instinct is to defend that kind of bullshit. 

Red Rum has already explained.

I was a participant in the same thread. My opening post was very clearly condemnatory of Hamas. My focus in later posts, however, was the disproportionate response, the killing of innocents among the Palestinian population. Tinculin immediately accused me of being a terrorist supporter. A member of the mod team intervened, asking Tinculin to point to where I had shown any support for Hamas. Tinculin couldn't. Nevertheless, I immediately left the thread, knowing from Tinculin's dealings with Sword that the quickest way to get banned from the forum is to disagree with Tinculin on an issue he has strong feelings about.

Likewise, if a thread is of no interest to you, simply walk away from it, Dappy.