Honestly, I hate banning or suspending anyone. I know some users think otherwise, but I really really hate doing it. I've been attacked by some users saying i'm too strict on users and attacked by other users who say I'm too lenient on other users. I post warning threads like the one mentioned in this article because I want to avoid banning users.
One thing I don't think some of you realize is that it is very easy to just ban a user and be done with it. For example, if I banned Floaty, he would be gone and not around to complain. Instead, I warn and then the user gets several suspensions before an outright permanent banning which means they get to keep coming back to make snarky comments about the staff, the site, etc. never realizing that they are back because we chose to not simply ban them.
Trust me, it's much easier to ban. If I had just banned some users years ago, there would be a lot less hate toward the staff, the site and myself because there wouldn't be a group of users around to complain. I've been on the other side of that situation many times on other forum sites over the years, where you might not even know what you did wrong. You just login one day and are told you're account is permanently banned and that's it. From the staff's side, it would eliminate a lot of headaches and work by getting rid of users permanently, but we don't do that.
This is not a commercial site nor was it put online to make me rich. I put it online because I wanted a safe place for Cowboys fans to talk about their team. When people post the same negative comments and snide remarks over and over and over, at that point they stop being unhappy fans and instead become hard to distinguish among the trolls from other teams. You don't know how many times the staff has had conversations about a user with a lot of posts trying to figure out if they are just an angry fan or instead a fan from another team just here to fan the flames.
What it comes down to is moderators are evil, unless you happen to agree with them about something. Then they are the best moderators on any site you've ever visited. If they ban your enemies and leave you alone, they are awesome. If they give you a warning though, they are the worst moderators ever. Moderators know this and part of the process of selecting moderators is making sure they have thick skin.
In the end, I don't care what people think of me. I hope they like me or at least appreciate what I have done and mostly for (minus the donations) over the last 12 years, but I accept that some people prefer to be angry and insulting. I could have easily put CZ on low-end servers, cheap hosting, etc. to make money, but I have always kept CZ on enterprise level servers in high-end data centers for maximum speed and performance. The users who do appreciate what I have done and continue to do for Cowboys fans over the years make this all worth it, attacks, insults and all.
And many of us thank you, Sir...isn't Reality strange.
