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The most successful computer help forums I participate in that get a lot of traffic are well policed by attentive moderators who keep things on track. Posts that violate the forum rules are quickly removed, posters who violate the forum rules are warned once and, if they persist, temporarily banned for a few hours to a week or so. After that if they persist, they're permanently banned.
It takes a good-sized staff of volunteer moderators to keep a forum running smoothly. Moderators seldom get any thanks for their work. More often, they get griped at for whatever injustice a user has decided they have committed. My experience has been that very few users who violate a forum's rules have ever bothered to read them.
It also takes moderators who are committed to keeping the board running smoothly, leaving their egos at the door. As soon a a forum gets even one power-crazed moderator who starts using his or her power for personal vendettas, things can go downhill within weeks, if not days. Once a forum gets a bad reputation for that sort of thing, it's very difficult to survive.
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