good question. If the old timers want to politely let the newbies know when they have broken one of the mechanical type rules as we are talking about here,(copyright, linking to "bad sites,etc) then that is helpful. But when it gets into admonishing one another then it gets a little annoying. It is bad enough to have mods breathing down your neck, but throw a few hundred posters on that and it is a little much.
If you see that one older poster has let someone know that they broken one of the fluid, mechanical-procedural type rules we probably don't need 10 people telling that person as well.
BIG BIG Exception to this is if you see rude,OT, namecalling, hostile,trollish,attacking,argumentative type rule breaking. Those types of a posts should be alerted on (little triangle in the top right corner of each post) and not addressed in any way at all by other members. Those are vacationing type posts and you should alert, ignore and scroll right by. If you tell someone you are going to ignore them or that they are being rude or otherwise attack them back , you may find yourself on a no expenses paid vacation as well.
Does that help?
ETA: Regarding alerts. The alerts go to the moderators mailboxes. They are not online all the time. So, if time goes by and the offensive post is not acted upon, it may be because no one has been online to look at it yet. please don't threaten us in the alert text box about what you will do if we don't do what you want immediately; and don't alert on the same post over and over. We all volunteer and do the best we can.
thanks.