What's a good way to respond to those flutherites who get deeply angry and rude about the moderation system?

PM them a piece of your mind.

Give them money! ;)

You could suggest they migrate to an unmoderated site such as Askville. You could simply say “well, I like it the way that it is.” If they are too rude, you could always flag their response. Or you could simply ignore them.

“When a guest in a new country are you better served seeking out what you dislike and trying to change their culture? Or would you not benefit more by embracing the new customs of your host?”

There are plenty of other places to go if one doesn’t like moderation. After all, it’s a big internet. ;)

Ignore them. They won’t stay long.

Remove them by fluther.

;-)

try this waaaaaaaaaaaaaa

If they have a valid point you should listen to the complaint. The petty/mean/nasty/etc. language of their complaint is usually a reaction to what they feel is injustice. Ignoring them (us) validates their claims of inequality. Separating users with terms like veterans and newbies is automatically setting the stage for hard feelings. I was in a situation where I was moderated for going off topic, I was one of three users who made this mistake. I was the only user reprimanded. The two “veteran” users were not called out by name like I was and it set the stage. I felt singled out. I know I was the only one who was breaking the unwritten rules who needed the unwritten rule information, but it could have been delivered to the collective and I could have applied the rules to myself without feeling shat upon. When I was harangued for 28 hours by a “veteran” via PM I was advised to stop responding. Okay, fair enough, but it wouldn’t have seemed so unfair or biased if the other party was told to stop at the same time. There was a lag and it was definitely in the “veterans” favor. Knee-jerk dismissal of a new, albeit nasty point of view creates cliquing and it’s counterproductive to the “collective” theme.