1. I am on quite a few email forums, some artistic, some technical, a few social and/or a combination.  In one very large group, email exchanges were becoming diatribe volleys of "tag, you're it!" and long-time members were bailing out, taking their expertise with them.  But no one liked full moderation or even banning of "difficult" people since the difficult people also had a lot of valuable information and alternate viewpoints.

We tried a short-term solution that turned into a long-term cure.  I'm not sure if this software feature would be available in a new forum but what we did was impose a 5 post-a-day limit (on a rolling 24 hours) on everyone.  With over 1500 subscribers, our thinking was no one person needed to speak to that many people more than 5 times a day anyway.  The result was, the tit-for-tat bursts of postings killed themselves and created an automated "time-out".  People who wanted to flame/troll had to stop and consider how many of their 5 replies they wanted to use up.  That lead to more careful wording and less heat but still kept controversial conversation alive.  At a minimum, the vitriol became more coherent and well-written.

Occasionally, it choked off someone in the middle of a good conversation - but hey tomorrow is just a day away.  Once or twice, the person would forward their reply to another member for group posting if necessary.  I believe admins and a few key senior members were exempt from the posting limit.

2. May I suggest PowerPopPlanet as a group name?  Call it PPP or even 3P for shorthand.  Just a thought....

anyway, I'll follow the group wherever.  I've found too much music I would not have the time to find on my own.  And personally, I've never had trouble hitting a delete key without opening and email I just *know* I don't want to read.....