So we've had a get together at MNHQ and we have come up with the following set of actions/proposals, following on from the previous thread:
- We will make more effort to be communicative and transparent. This will include the MNHQ duty person posting on the boards more to explain a deletion of a post or a thread and providing more info in cases where we have banned or suspended someone for trolling, so folks know that we are "doing something". We will also try to provide more specific message deleted info - ie more than just because it "breaks talks guidelines" (eg because it perpetuates rape myths etc) (NB this will take a bit of time because it involves tech)
- We will aim to be quicker to delete threads that have been or seem to have been started purely to inflame/goad, even if it means we occasionally might make a mistake. This is to avoid the goady threads where an OP is deliberately inflaming, leading to a lot of deleted responses. We will also suspend those who we suspect of being out to deliberately goad and make sure our guidelines reflect this.
- We will aim for a lighter touch approach to deletions where discussion is robust but lively and interesting and "attacks" are borderline/very slight/ 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
- We will make sure everyone at MNHQ is aware of looking at the bigger picture - not just focus on the reported post - and is clear on what constitutes a personal attack - ie that it's ok to attack an opinion, not ok to attack a poster.
- Our policy on trollhunting remains not to tolerate it - so please don't do it, but please do report suspicions to us. That said, we will try to be more communicative on threads where folks suspect a troll - ie we are aware that some people have expressed doubts and we are looking into it/ we have checked this out and have no reason to believe this person is a troll/ we agree this person is not what they seem and have deleted the thread.
- We will hold regular chats/q&as about moderation issues and policy - monthlyish? - where we can have a good debate about any particular bugbear or issue and one of us will discuss policy and why we do what we do...
Out of interest we've checked the deletions thing and surprisingly the number of deleted messages seems to have dropped not risen year on year - even though traffic is up by more than 40%
(these include messages deleted from deleted threads - so one long thread = 1000 deletions)
Jan 1st 2011 to May 29th 2011: 81884 messages
Jan 1st 2012 to May 29th 2012: 72037 messages
Nonetheless we think people have raised some good points and we hope all trying the above will make the board better - if not we'll try something else 
- thanks for all the input.
Please do post your thoughts/observations (disclaimer - I'm off out shortly so won't be around to respond tonight but will be back tomorrow)