Your point is well taken. I'd like to respond on behalf of myself and
@Markku, as forum managers.
Ordinarily, we would never take such a measure, and I do agree it's quite extreme. If I would see something like this on another forum where I was a member, I would have the exact same reaction as yourself. I can assure you that we did not take this measure lightly, and that there is no malice behind our act. Our only concern is the functioning of this forum, which was becoming severely threatened by the member in question.
In the eight-year history of this forum, we have NEVER received as many complaints about the conduct of a member as in this case. On a frequent basis arguments erupted where he would call other members names like "despicable human being" and many other insults I dare not even repeat here. Those posts were of course removed/edited.
We have in fact, as you suggested, spoken to the member privately, on many occasions over the past year or so. We have invested many, many hours trying to make him change his conduct and explain that he can express any opinion he wants, as long as it's done in a civil manner. This is the approach we've always taken with 'difficult' members, because as you rightly state, we are very cognizant that often people lash out because they are suffering, and we do not want to punish them for that, but rather work with them to find a better way to relate. We have always believed in second and third chances, rather than (as happens on most other forums) banning people outright when they cause trouble. This approach has on many occasions led to people coming around and becoming valued members of this community. Sadly, in this case, our efforts have failed.
In spite of all of the above, I would not blame you if you still think our public announcement was somewhat distasteful. I hope you can at least muster some sympathy for the fact that we are running this forum, on a volunteer basis, having put in literally thousands of hours of our spare time to make this a supportive and welcoming environment for all. So, if our frustration with the extreme misconduct of a member got the better of us, well, we're only human. On top of that, the member in question has both publicly and privately made many false allegations against us; the most hurtful one the suggestion that we are somehow in this for personal gain. Again, we have spoken many times to him privately to explain our point of view, but it seems to make no difference. A limit had been reached. I cannot say whether what we did was right or wrong, only that we felt it was our last option, apart from a ban, which we – even in this extreme case – always try to avoid if we can.
I hope I've explained our side of it somewhat to your satisfaction. Please know how much we appreciate and value members like yourself; who try to see the good in everyone and come here just to support and positively engage with others. A big thanks to you and all members like you who have made this community what it is today!
Since it seems that
@JohnAdams has removed himself from this discussion, and we agree that one-sidedly criticizing him is unfair, we would suggest that the discussion ends here. Let's let MPP get back to its daily business: shitposting in the name of science
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