Very true, a weaker knit set of rules and less interference on behalf of administrators and moderators does tend to make for a calmer forum as this site can attest to.I used to visit a web forum (now gone) where the rules were very simple but in two points, covered everything:
1. Don't spam.
2. Be nice.
We all need rules on the internet, otherwise there's chaos. Thanks for clarifying everything Bex x