the option to ban people from your thread is stupid and caters to the sensitive weak types. keep that shit at PF. why do people constantly need reminding of why this place is unique, every other idea is how to make it the same as every other place. cunts
"Also, another wish item: A thread where we are taught how to write with colors, change fonts, insert smilies and other things I see people do here that I have no idea how."
I can help with that. 
It's a bit excessive though, so it'll likely just lead to asking Luna to make it easier.
"There's a correlation between moderation and intellectual discussion."
Not really. You're ignoring the cause of why it's gone downhill (bursting the illusion of safety through spam, the Dex Effect). It's not a 1 - 1 correlation from there being other factors that are actually weighing into why it's happening. On top of that, a lack of rules revealed that shitposting is not only viable, but to them, hilarious with trigger potential, so either rules deal with that or you're stuck with intellectual discussion's dominance going downhill.
When there's no moderation or safeguards against certain sorts of behaviors, it inevitably descends into spam and shitposting when they feel like they want to destroy something or have some cheap lulz. I don't like it, but there's people that like to destroy things that other people like for a cheap and fleeting thrill.
Too much intellectual discussion also slows down a forum, and this place was never just about that. It's at its best when there's a balance.
It's misleading to compare that idea with moderation. The problem with moderation is that people feel being pushed into a certain direction the mods deem good. And no moderation at all pushes people into a certain direction just as much. The idea to let people create their own thing is something entirely different and the reason why reddit is so successful.