So are you proposing we have absolutely no rules?
we have no rules on our forum and have no issues what so ever.
I have no rules on my forum either, but I set it up myself, rather than signing up to someone else's already existing forum that already had rules in place. There are some forums I use where I swear like a trooper and post absolute filth too, but I would never, ever expect to do it on here, out of respect to the owners of the forum and the guys that set it up. As Adam says, it's a scale thing. A small minnow of a forum like mine doesn't have any problems on it, it's a very specific forum and I don't have to do any moderating other than if people ask for stuff to be moved or deleted.
Same here, I set our club up with friends as we were fed up with certain rules/apsects ect. It works well with the few hundred members have. Also have to agree about agreeing to the rules out of respect, irrespective of my personal veiw of the rules.