A quick word on "Overwhelmingly Negative Influences"

[robvalue]

Having just freshly kicked myself out of staff like a dingus, I can confirm that it is not an easy job. It requires making decisions which can seem unfair or unreasonable to the casual observer. But the thing is, the staff have to observe everything. Take it all into account. They can't make emotional decisions. They must be even and fair, and having been a part of it for the best part of a year, I have agreed with most of the decisions that have been made.

Of course, staff can make bad decisions, even en masse. They are (mostly) only human, after all. In general, bad decisions are followed by apologies and attempts to rectify the situation in my experience. Where the rules have been shown to be lacking, repairs are made.

I was too hard on them lately, which I regret. I have a lot of respect for them, they do a great job which is mostly invisible. It's kind of like the NHS, you only notice them when they "mess up". It's not fair to judge them solely on these instances and ignore all the time they've kept things running smoothly.

As for Drich... on a personal level, I'm not mad at him because I believe he has no empathy. As such, he literally knows no better. I haven't read very much of what he's written for a long time so I can't comment on whether he deserves to be banned. To me, it's about the way you communicate with people. You can be polite and respectful while sharing disgusting opinions; and you can be extremely rude while sharing nice ones. It's the interaction that's important. This is the difference between discussion and trolling/flaming, for example.