Moderating is as subjective as picking the best all-time (whatever). The fact that this thread has the legs it has is a pretty good indication that we're given a lot of rope to hang ourselves. Extremes of moderation (either way) can be devastating to a forum.
I currently follow, but don't post to, two forums that are great examples. One is basically "thou shalt not fault anyone associated with green and gold", so virtually all threads are complimentary and followed by such diverse opinions as "great post", "+1", et. al. They even developed a separate forum for ranters be eventually banished several of us who failed to toe the line. That forum is dying a slow, painful death (based on number of posts) after once being a top Packer hangout.
The other one is moderated only to the extent that they hate quoting the immediately preceding post to reply to it. Other than that, it's pretty much a race to see who can come up with the most obnoxious, borderline obscene, off-topic, cutsie, and aggressive posts. Strictly a place for "look at me" posters, ala the idiot fans we see on so many broadcasts.
The remaining forums to which I post have varying degrees of moderation, but all will step in on occasion, almost always after some sort of "now, now, ladies, let's play nice" warning or two or three. I'm perfectly satisfied with that.