I voted a '3'. Not bad anough to drive me off the board, but a negative influence all in all.
(Where '5' is neutral, a lower score means that moderators are making things worse, a higher score means that moderators are valuable discussion facilitators making discussions better than they would otherwise be.)
My biggest interest here is the overall 'Philosophy' section. (That's where my own academic background is concentrated, broadly speaking.)
I think that while the 'General Philosophy' sub-forum has some problems, they aren't the result of its moderation. So my opinion would be '5' for that one. Perhaps part of the reason for that is that moderation on that sub-forum is almost invisible. There isn't a whole lot of value-added, but the moderators aren't making things worse either.
The 'Ethics and Justice' sub-forum is a bit of a disaster area in my opinion. It shares many of the same faults as the Politics forum and seems to be dominated by the same people. Moderators seem to take an inordinate interest in it and seven of the ten most recent threads there were started by moderators. It's all about their takes on divisive hot-button social issues and appears self-indulgent to a fault. I would give that one a '1'. I have absolutely no desire to post there, and the behavior of the moderators is a big part of why I don't.
The 'Religion' sub-form used to be one of my favorite places on Sciforums. It was very lightly moderated (earning it a '5') and often hosted very interesting and stimulating conversations, amidst the inevitable drivel. It seemed to be kind of dominated by atheist/theist battling, which annoyed some people I guess. But I thought that was a good hook to snag laypeople's attention and the arguments stimulated interesting discussions about all aspects of the philosophy of religion. All in all, I thought that it was great fun.
But somebody called for more moderation there, a series of missteps ensued, and the forum seems to be kind of brain-dead these days. Many of the most interesting people (like Wynn) seem to have left. Other conversational stalwarts (like LG) have been summarily banned for no credible reason. The most active threads once again are political social-issue threads and the usual-suspect moderators seem very active in pushing the new emphasis. I'd now rate the Religion forum a '3' and falling like a stone. I expect things to only get worse. That's why I've been posting more up in the Science fora (the philosophy of science is a long-standing interest of mine) becoming a new headache for Trippy. The thing to note that the 'Religion' forum's headlong plummet from '5' to '3' has been entirely the work of Sciforums' moderators, since they set about "improving" the place.
I do need to say that isn't really the fault of Kittamaru. He seems like a good guy with good instincts. He isn't causing the problems but he isn't doing much of anything to make them better. (There may not be much that he can do seeing as how other moderators are involved.)
Finally, the 'Asian Philosophy' sub-forum. That subject is of interest to me, but seemingly to nobody else, so nothing happens there. The sub-forum's moderator is a slightly bizarre but seemingly harmless and likeable believer in ancient-astronaut theories. It gets a '3' perhaps.