While I suspect we might normally agree on a great many things, I have to disagree with you here. While it is true that rules can cost a site a great deal of traffic loss, lack of rules can also cost traffic, and more importantly quality of posts and participants. Many of us do not want to weed through a completely unmoderated thread, so the only ones who end up reading them are the handful of posters of that thread. In the feedback I’ve received, site traffic on a thread actually goes up when a solid discussion is occurring (granted it also goes up during soap-opera-like mudslinging fights, but for the wrong reasons). I for one cheer the work Percy and the other admins have done with this site, even if I don’t always agree with their judgement calls.
After you get a good dose of the countless unmoderated forums on the Origins debate plastered all over the internet, I suspect you might return.
Fred