This thread is about an idea/concern which has been churning occasionally in my mind since I was moderator myself. I believe I didn't bring it up at the time because I thought it would seem too critical as other mods could take it personal. I have some criticisms, but it is directed at a way of doing things rather than the actions of anyone specific. There's always the chance of someone feeling targetted, though, and if anyone's offended due to my comments/suggestion, I am sorry.
Background / Criticisms
Moderators are pretty much left to their own when it comes to exactly how they deal with members. That means that some moderators may not deal with members in ways that you agree with. Something I've seen moderators do (including myself) is to write passionate messages to other members, belittling or ridiculing them for how they broke the rules or being sarcastic or something other that the member finds offensive. For most users, being disciplined is hard enough and sometimes what happens is that the user will get so angry at this that he will send an offensive message back to the moderator. This in turn justifies harsher disciplinary actions from the moderator and the user can even find him or herself permabanned.
As a fellow moderator, there's not much you can do when this sort of stuff comes up. The discussion took place in PM and when you see a quotation from another user personally attacking a mod, there's little you can do but voice your support. You are part of a team.
Sometimes this scenario just happens, but I suspect moderators can and have used it as a way of baiting members into angry fits where they will do something ban-worthy just so that the moderator will feel justified in turning a small disciplinary action into harsh punishment. Regardless of whether the moderator is purposely manipulating the member or not, the outcome is often the same.
I should add as a side note that even if/when employed as a manipulative strategy, it will generally be used in a way which is beneficial to the site by removing a troublesome element. Hence, I'm not so much criticizing the results as I am the way it is done.
Suggestions
I'd like to propose a few things. First, I propose a more factual and colder approach to discipline. A note to the user need simply contain a "You did this and this is the consequence" and perhaps a warning that repetition can lead to bans is a good way to let a user know when a rule is broken. Of course, a member can still get pissy (candidates for permbans generally are), but at least it's less the fault of the moderator. There should be no need to insult a member.
I don't know how moderation is done nowadays, but I also propose using the infraction system more as it makes a thread in your reports forums which means more transparency as every mod can review the way a situation was handled.
Finally, I suggest using a (mods only) voting system to ban members. For every user who would normally be permabanned today, you can create a poll thread in the mods forum (ex. Permban : Username). The user can be tempbanned while voting goes on. It will let all mods voice their opinions and it will also be easier to go back and look at the circumstances surrounding any banned members' case.
As a final note, I also believe moderators should be able to suggest the permbanning of members who haven't done anything wrong as they collectively are working together for the best interests of the site.
Finally, I'd like to mention that since it's been a while since I was mod now, such a system could already be in place for all I know
On the whole, the mods here are doing a great job and so I hope noone takes this as personal criticism.