While I'm sorry to see anyone leave, I'm a bit of a convert on this rules thing. Back a few years ago, you see, I too got suspended a couple of times. For a while, I copped a 'tude about it. I did this even though I knew better. I mean, I fully understand the desire HT has to keep this forum open and accessible. The last thing "the enterprise" would want is to sponsor the equivalent of a lowest-common-denominator electronic locker room. So, after two strikes, I got over it, grew up a little about it, and decided that, instead of treating this virtual place as some kind of electronic dumping ground, I'd actually conduct myself here as I do "out there" in the real world.
That seems to work pretty well. I don't want to put words (or anything else) in Skuzzy's mouth, but I get the distinct impression that he allows the rules to bend so long as people are being respectful with each other. I won't cite specific evidence but I well remember a thread in which we were actually talking politics. The discussion was focused on questions of fact... until somebody came in and took a big dump on the whole thing. At that point, Skuzzy had little choice but to storm in, lock the thread, and suspend some offenders. That's a pity - but it wasn't his choice or doing that made it so.
So, while you'll see me sarcastically kid about an "anything goes" forum where porn, drug deals, and profanity are the order of the day, I don't thing that's anything the enterprise should or would sponsor. That's just me doing the reductio ad absurdum for those who want to race to the bottom.
I have no idea what happened, I'm not going to "play along" to try to figure it out. All I'll say is that, we're technically on someone else's property, here. It'd be my property if I owned some share of the enterprise, but I don't. I'm a customer, not a shareholder. Customers can be shown the door. I was given plenty of warning, so I suspect others are probably given similar treatment when they step over the line.
