lol at you guys thinking that this is a democracy
internet forums are dictatorships. The admin sais how it is done, and it is done.
and you guys know that toady's admins decision are not acts of random powermegalomania, going around banning whatever and whomever he dislikes.
places like VN were closed because of massive amounts of complaints and rule violations, and we DID get warnings beforehand.
people like IWM were banned after dozens of rule violations, and also multiple warnings.
he decided not to listen, so he takes the bullet.
think of this from a law point of view.
if toady simply goes back on his word just because of popular demand, then who exactly has any incentive sticking to the rules, if there are no consequences at all ?
law enforcement needs to be especialy one thing: consequent.
it doesn't matter how hard or how fair the punishment is, but it must be consequent. One spoken, it should not be taken back, ESPECIALY not because of popular demand.
I spent 3 years as a moderator of a 1.000.000+ members huge adult forum. you know, the kind of place were no one at all cares about the rules.
being the strict person I am, my ban-count was at about 3-4 people a day, and oh god I got a lot of hate-mail, and also a lot of those popular demand things. people just rallyed their forum friends, and for weeks over weeks I got bombarded with PM that were often more than 1000 words long, containing alllll kinds of arguements.
I did not unban those people. Simply because the rules are the rules.
The desperate fuckers eventually turned to other mods, asking them to undo my work, and lenient and inconsequent as they were, they gave in.
The admin noticed that, and banned said mods.
consequence people. consequence
once permabanned, he is banned
he already got more than one second chance. he can consider himself lucky that he received a temp ban before that, and even luckier that he received so many warnings prior to his permaban.
posting on a forum is not a right, it's a privilege.
one has to earn your right to be here, not even by being a good member, but simply be NOT being a bad member.
it's not hard
those who willingly spit on that should go to hell or 4chan
P.S : as usually after such a speech, I would now lock the thread. but since I can't, Tack, will you have the honor ?