IMHO  Typically what is **genuinely off-topic is glaringly obvious**.  

Whether the "common" users or moderators move to close those questions is a question of who gets there first. Typically nobody disagrees that **those should not be front-page news**.

The last year I have been more active and I have not seen much of the [flame wars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_%28Internet%29#Flame_war) that used to plague usenet.  If that's the result of successful moderation or the community at work, I don't know. But the site works in that regard.  

an example: A question like [this](https://serverfault.com/questions/648089/replacing-3-drives-out-of-8-in-a-server/648099#648099) with quite a few down-votes but also a possibly excessively up-voted answer **does not need moderator slamming**. The community works there. 

Non-moderators don't see what moderators do (I think). Once you get some rep you, me and everybody does see some/all of the review queues, where participation is possibly not as wide-spread as wanted, but at least multiple eye-balls are at work. That appears to work too, but the queues are getting longer. 


In contrast, what a ***community leader*** is slightly less clear.  I have no idea actually. From what I see from the front of the site, what goes on behind the scenes is not broken.