Wild West is gone, for good.
Stated issue at hand is: Lawless nature of the Wild West subforum creates a safe haven for harassment. That's not cool and even if some of the folks this harassment is directed against claim they don't mind, it's unacceptable both in principle and because it creates an impression this sort of behavior could be considered generally acceptable, both putting other users at risk of becoming victims and generally hurting the site's reputation.
Proposed solutions are:
1) Close Wild West (mod team is in favor of this).
2) Keep Wild West but add precise rules banning the most egregious harassment (if so, please specify what you think the additional rules should be and why).
3) Leave things as they are (this is generally considered unacceptable due to reasons stated above, so if you choose this answer, please explain your point of view as well as why you consider issues mentioned irrelevant so that your answer may be given adequate consideration).
4) Something else entirely perhaps? (please explain)
Personally, I'm in favor of option #2, in particular I'd like to see a rule banning threads that serve in significant part, either through OP or major thread hijack, to harass a specific user or users on a strictly personal basis - this is admittedly a narrow, specific rule, but I hope it would deal with the worst offenders while allowing the forum to maintain its signature freedom.
Edit: added option #4
This has raised some controversy, not only over the fact a popular subforum got closed, but also the abrupt manner in which this was done. I feel the question raised several times, both by myself and others, as to why was there no public discussion on what to do and the possible merits of different solutions was not answered adequately, so both out of personal curiosity and to demonstrate the value of such discourse to any who would be willing to watch, I'd like to discuss the subject as if the decision has not yet been made, should anyone be so kind to humor me and engage in conversation.
Proposed solutions are:
1) Close Wild West (mod team is in favor of this).
2) Keep Wild West but add precise rules banning the most egregious harassment (if so, please specify what you think the additional rules should be and why).
3) Leave things as they are (this is generally considered unacceptable due to reasons stated above, so if you choose this answer, please explain your point of view as well as why you consider issues mentioned irrelevant so that your answer may be given adequate consideration).
4) Something else entirely perhaps? (please explain)
Personally, I'm in favor of option #2, in particular I'd like to see a rule banning threads that serve in significant part, either through OP or major thread hijack, to harass a specific user or users on a strictly personal basis - this is admittedly a narrow, specific rule, but I hope it would deal with the worst offenders while allowing the forum to maintain its signature freedom.
Edit: added option #4