On a more serious note, I would like to address the issue of arbitrariness of modding on SDN, because some of you may be confused about our policies after the events of yesterday.
All of you are no doubt aware that SDN is a very large organization. We have tens of thousands of active users, and over 100 volunteers who help run the site, including moderating dozens of forums. These volunteers are organized in a four-tiered hierarchy, and are assigned to their areas based upon training status, interest, and site needs.
Assistant mods ("greenies") are the entry level staff members. Besides being responsible for washing the cars and mowing the lawns of the more senior mods (I kid, I kid!), they function as stewards of the forum to which they are assigned. This means that they facilitate discussions, help noobs find appropriate resources, report problems in the forum, and otherwise assist their area leads. Green mods do not *ever* discipline problem users, which means they do not infract or ban anyone.
Full mods ("reds") may serve as area leads or middle management, depending on the needs of the particular forum, while senior mods ("blues") usually serve as area leads. A large forum like Pre-Allo has multiple mods of each level, including more than one senior mod. However, a relatively small forum like this one does not require nearly as much oversight, and therefore it can be run by me and one or two greenies who assist me. Along with the site administrators, red and blue mods are also tasked with nominating new green mods and discussing promotion of current junior mods to more senior levels. We also help review and propose site policy, including the disciplinary policy. As the only Nontrad mod above an assistant level, again, I am the only mod in this forum who is able to infract or ban users for violating the SDN Terms of Service (TOS).
Concerning disciplining users for violations of the SDN TOS, I need to reiterate what spicedmanna said about much of the decision-making going on out of the public eye. Upon joining the SDN staff, all new mods sign a non-disclosure agreement that requires us, among other things, to respect member privacy. This includes not discussing disciplinary actions with any user besides the user who was disciplined. Please realize that when an infracted user chooses to air his/her side of the story in public or by PM, you are only getting one version of events, because we are not in a position to present our side of the story.
In addition, the SDN staff has a set policy that we follow when disciplining members. The only reasons why we would ban someone immediately are if they join the site in order to spam, or if they are banned as a troll and attempt to circumvent the ban by creating a new account. For the majority of users, the first TOS violation results in receiving a warning. In most cases, this resolves the problem and no further actions are taken. Users who continue to violate the TOS after multiple warnings/infractions may have their accounts put on post hold or probation, depending on the offense and their history of previous TOS violations. In a few cases, if we cannot work with the user to resolve the problem after multiple attempts, that user may be banned as a troll.
Please understand that this is a rare occurrence, and when it does happen, it is not a decision taken lightly, nor is it a decision made by one mod acting alone. In the event that I felt the need to ban one of you as a troll, I would discuss it first with the other senior staff, and we would come to a consensus. In addition, we have a policy of recusing ourselves if there is any potential conflict of interest. So, for example, I would not be the one to infract someone who had attacked me personally or otherwise seemed to have a problem with me, in order to prevent even the appearance of my having acted in retribution. The purpose of involving the other senior staff in difficult or serious cases is to keep the application of infractions (including bans) as fair and consistent as possible.
For the record, we do not *ever* condone mods going on a "power trip." SDN is a website for professionals and future professionals, and we take the issue of unprofessional behavior by staff members very seriously. There have been a few unfortunate situations where a mod repeatedly did not behave appropriately as a representative of SDN. In these cases (thankfully also very rare), the mod was removed from the staff.
Obviously, with so many staff members and so many personalities, it is impossible to have perfectly equal interpretation and enforcement of the TOS across all forums. Some mods take a stricter approach, and some (including me) take a more laissez faire approach. I really dislike having to infract people, especially for a heated discussion. I'd rather post an in-thread message asking people to please cool off a little, or close the thread. Since our forum is relatively small, and I have the chance to get to "know" those of you who are regulars, I feel comfortable asking you to please chill out a little rather than meting out infractions for every little tiff. The most common violation of TOS that I warn people about is cross-posting, and by far the most common thing I ban people for is spamming. So it's not like people are being banned or infracted on a regular basis for the occasional rumble here and there, and IMO, this more hands-off style works very well for our forum.
That being said, if any of you have problems with or questions about how the forums are run, you should feel free to ask. Again, I cannot discuss specifics of infractions against other users with anyone else besides the user who received the infraction. However, if you feel that you have been treated unfairly by me or by another mod, or if you have ideas about how this forum could be run better, I'm open to hearing your thoughts. Modding the Nontrad forum has been (and continues to be) a huge labor of love for me. But what this forum is, and what it can and will be, is what all of us together make it.