As far as political or other 'off-topic' conversations, I'll have to say it's human nature.  You get a bunch of people together, whether it's in a your home, a newsgroup or an IRC channel, eventually the conversation will wander.  If you don't like it and its your home, you can ask your guests politely to avoid such talk or even to leave if they're particularly unruly.  Likewise with your IRC channel or a moderated newsgroup. The occasional "Let's leave the politics out of it" or "Dave, we don't care to hear about your online dating stuff (trust me, we don't)" should keep things from getting out of hand.  At least it'll let people know where you stand. If it gets untenable, the offending parties could be kicked from the IRC channel. BTW, being kicked usually means you can immediately rejoin the channel...  maybe with a clue about what not to do/say the next time.

I have lurked or participated in many forums over the years that include the habitual flamers at sci.electronics.design (some professionals there, geeze) to the frenetically crying and shouting babies at slashdot. I've found that the only online forums that stay completey on-topic and never include anything that might upset or ruffle the feathers of any persons are those that are fully moderated (meaning nothing gets posted that hasn't been reviewed by a moderator first).  I'm here to tell you, that kind of forum or medium is of only a limited value and usually quite boring.

I guess the reason I'm replying here is that (a) I didn't see anything on the channel that was upsetting; the off-and-on annoyance, sure.  WRT Bush-bashing and etc, hey, I voted for Bush. You know what? I don't think there's the proverbial snowball's chance that either Bush or Kerry could or would do diddly-squat to help or hinder the outlook of RE. That, my friends, is up to you and the other fed lawmakers that you elect.  

(b) I recall only a few instances where someone tried to get things back on topic in IRC.  At least once or twice was from Tom, saying something like "and that involves RE how?" Let's say Jim isn't live on the channel often enough to keep things going his way...  I think it's legit to drop a comment in-channel to the effect of "I don't like the way things are going around here.  If we can't keep it on-topic and apolitical, then I may decide to direct the otherpower channel to a different host."  As it went, it's like the kid who puts his marbles back in the bag and takes them home with no warning, game over.  Didn't even get a chance to let him win a little.

Jim has run the channel well for a long time, that's true. But that was quite a while ago, and the only contributions I have seen from him have to do with drunken rants about firewood, mortgages, politics (yes, he starts those rants, and when they don't go his way he gets mad) and working overtime. Not that I mind, but to hijack a server that's meanwhile due to lack of interest from the original 'owner' being run by other, appearantly more interested parties because you don't like the conversations going on is childish at least. It's typical of strong proponents of any political administration that they prefer to shut down communications instead of arguing the facts, be they American or otherwise. IRC channels, and most other communications media are there for their users, not for their owners.

I'd personally rather have the dissent and discussions out in the open, we might learn something that way.

From what I can see the move seems to have backfired more than just a little bit, the channel is as active as ever, on the new server - and the old one has 'jimu' sitting on his own in a totally dead chatroom.

Too bad, to me a chatroom is like a livingroom. Occasionally things will come up that lead to heated discussions, which is fine with me, as long as people keep their tempers to the acceptable. If you can't do that you do not usually have a place to hold on to. And owning the domain is a far cry from running the server, it means you run the naming system, but not the house. It's a bit like changing the street sign in an otherwise active street because you do not like what's going on in a bar in that street.

As far as Mr. Moore's comments are concerned, they seem to be more along political lines than anything else, since from what it looks like the 'original' irc channel is now running on his machine. Other than that I do not recall mr. Moore making any contribution either here on fieldlines or on the irc channel that had anything to do with Renewable Energy.