Wow Alex,
It must have been an outrageous bit of flaming because I reckon you are pretty tough to upset
Now more seriously, I too have been blasted a few times when I wasn't trying to be controversial at all, so generally I'm with you.
It's a fine line for the mods though, between having a bit of interesting ginger on the forum, and allowing things to go too far. By and large (except of course when I get censured
) they seem to do pretty well.
I recommend the measures you mention, PMs and the "ignore" setting.
Cheers