I know there is talk about this in other threads so I wanted to say something, from my own experiences.
It's not easy being a moderator or an administrator... I know this from experience. I'm currently an Administrator/Moderator for a forum myself and one has to be neutral and diplomatic in times like this.
I've had to tell my friends to back down, take a few deep breaths and think before they make an angry post. I've also had to close threads started up by my friends because the threads got out of hand. I don't like doing this but if I have to, so no one breaks the rules and things calm down, I will.
Sometimes a thread can get either de railed or nasty in one heck of a hurry... I've seen this on the board that I'm a junior staff member on, that board has over 25,000 members. People will start arguing, nasty things are said back and forth and the administrators of said board generally wind up closing the thread in a hurry and sometimes have to give out infractions and warnings to those who didn't listen to them the first time around.
Breaking the respect rule on a continual basis is one way to wind up on the mod's watch list. I'm pretty sure the respect rule goes for about 99% of the forums out there and if one thinks they are above the rules of any forum, they should be given at least a warning in my opinion. If the behavior continues after that or increases in frequency and gets worse, other things can and will probably be done about it.
If someone comes into a place, no matter how long they have been a member there, and starts attacking others for no obvious reason or starts sending out PMs that break the respect rule and they are being reported for it, being temporarily banned is not unsuitable for their behavior
in my opinion.
Just keep in mind that if it wasn't for the moderators making sure everything was going smoothly and everyone was having fun and behaving themselves, things could be a lot worse than seeing one person getting a temp ban.
Just sayin.
