But then take my point as well, where no matter what is, or in some cases isn't, said, someone will still take offense to it. Where do you draw the line at removing things that could offend? For some people, a forum dedicated to games could offend (cip. Jack Thompson et al), so should we remove the site itself?
What about personal digs? Like if I call Blokey a Yorkshite (not a typo )fatty, should they be removed, because someone might take offense at a friendly jibe?

For racism, yes, definitely remove it, more people are potentially going to take offense (fuck you Chrome, offense is correct, stop fucking changing it to offence) at racist remarks. Homophobic remarks, yeah, let's remove those, because someone's going to call Stonewall to protest.
Religious remarks? Well, Muslims can get offended seemingly without saying anything, and in the interest of SCIENCE! (stand back), we'd need to include all religions to not seem prejudiced against anyone... Which means we dig at the atheists? Oh wait, can't do that, or you get accused of being pro-religion instead of pro-debate...

See where I'm going with this?

Active moderation works in only a very small set of situations, it's why IT don't do it at Aviva, and Carl can attest to some of the bullshit that is let fly on the "social" extranet forums. Yeah, they remove racist and homophobic remarks pretty quickly, but other than that, it's report city. And even that lands people in the shit when someone from IT happens to email a report to the wrong person (not that I ever did that ).

Anyhoo, my point is that to be able to remove things, you need to establish a line, and only delete content that crosses it. If it's grey, then move it to a mod-only area, review it. If it's turns out over the line, then can it, or move it back if it's not. Other than that, reactive moderation is the king. But people need to get it into their heads that a complaint != removal.

I agree, but my statement was not that some unreasonable people will take offense. But if a mod, a fair and balanced individual (we hope) assesses the post (maybe due to feed back from someone) and feels it is or could offensive then they will remove at their discretion in respect for the peoples in question.

I often found that moderators arguments were too longwinded.

Then just trust them. Or don't but don't complain about their decisions.

time to add my two cents

as long as you dont offend the person youre saying it to, its ok

Dammit, Sypher, your necrophilia is spreading.

But seriously, I can mostly agree with that, though there's still some shit you just don't say, out of decency if nothing else.

necrophilia makes me cry

Boy, that's irony for ya.