[Baz]

I wonder if sometimes it's better to shut down a thread like this earlier.

They go too far too quickly and go on too long with a lot of needless attacks on each other.

The suspensions and/or vacations are one way to handle things but IMHO you could also send a message by simply closing a thread down when things seem to get out of hand.

I'm for free speech - but it should still be civilized.

How about deleting a post as another option with a warning to that poster.

"post something like that again and you'll be on vacation".

Appreciate the work the mods do for us - it's not an easy job. Just offering input for discussion.