I know it's not adding a lot to this debate, but I agree with everyone who has endorsed the current "consideration" regime.

I think the system does a good job of representing the feeling of a majority of active PerlMonks members and that should be it's goal. The reason why different countries have different ethical and moral standards is (in most cases) because different groups of people tend to have different ideas/priorities etc.

In some countries, insulting the government will land you in jail. In others it's derigeur behavior. In nearly every country, insulting someone's family will insult them. Whether they beat you with a stick in return depends on the culture. Insulting Jesus is taken by some church cultures as an insult to rebuke, in others it is taken as an opportunity to start an interesting discussion.

PerlMonks is a community like a country, a church or a bingo club. It's rules are, I believe, implemented more fairly than many online communities and I would be reticent to back any change to the status quo.