Peanut Gallery Commentary on the Staff Log of Bannings and such like.

[Cyberman]

I've spoken before about the old EvilBible forum and how its owner, Chris, would routinely ban people he didn't like, sometimes for good reasons but often the opposite. In the end a similar situation to this one happened there. He got into a long argument with a very popular and articulate long-standing regular, with whom he lost patience and banned. There was major uproar, everyone started protesting the decision and demanding its overturning. Chris went into total meltdown, banning everyone in sight one after another. I don't know how I survived. Those of us who weren't banned sought sanctuary at other forums, though I still popped in often. Eventually Chris shut down the forum due to lack of members.

I think it says a lot about the integrity of the people here that even distasteful decisions are arrived at fairly and accepted maturely. Banning is such sweet sorrow; as such it's absolutely the last option considered in - thankfully rare - cases like this.

Incidentally, I abstained from voting as well, after giving my recommendations.