Lionel Hutts's Journal: Comments, moderation, comments about it, moderation of them

I've been thinking about how the moderation system could work better: specifically, how moderators and non-moderators alike could have a sidebar discussion about the proper moderation of a thread. We still see too many posts that complain about moderation -- and we can't just moderate them down, because sometimes they make good points.

At the same time, moderators cannot, at present, explain themselves at all, even by an off-topic post, since they can't post on the same story. When, for example, a post sounds insightful until you realize that the poster's concern would be eliminated if he bothered to read the article, the post should be modded down (as flamebait, I suppose). But will meta-moderators, who may not have followed the story at all, punish the moderators for modding down a post that, at first glance, looks insightful? I worry about that when I moderate, at least.

I'll have more specific suggestions later.