First, I will say, it was not my action to suspend Don M's posting. I have no such authority. I will say, however, that as much as I dislike the idea, I'd offer the argument there was little else to do. I did not make a request, but my opinion was asked on the matter, and I gave it.
As moderators, we are given the task of keeping the fora from degenerating into factionalized, warring schisms. Unfortunately, it is not within the power of any of us forsee the outcome of any thread, nor know with any certainty the responses things will generate. However, over time, certain patterns emerge. Certain people become obsessed with certain topics, or against certain others, or go on a "mission" to save the world from X, Y, or Z.
Many of the topics in the Products / Accessories become very technical in nature. People who have some authority in thier own right disagree on some point, and at that point, members of the audience tend to take sides and begin sniping at the other. Over the c ourse of the last 3 months, I have gotten a number of requests to intervene in technical arguments. I'd like to think of myself as well-informed, or very smart, or even always right. But I know without a doubt that I absolutely do NOT know it all. I simply cannot pick a side, based upon deciding that one side of a technical dispute is right and the other wrong, lying, etc.
At this point, the moderators are sometimes faced with a dilemma that even Solomon would probably struggle to solve. Pressure to close thread after thread, demands to keep it open, and of course, pressure from both sides to enforce the "right" type of argument. At this point, we, as moderators, are pretty much forced to fall back from the technical validity of the conversation, and enforce the rules based upon our judgement of the poster's attitude, and whether he or she continues to add fuel to the fire and is stirring up a bigger fight, or if the debate stays within the boundaries defined by the guidelines.
Many times, I have done nothing when the guidelines are minorly violated, because it appeared to me that things would either go back to being informative or useful, or that interest was dying and things would be ok after all. Sometimes I was right, sometimes wrong. Sometimes what I passed over someone else shut down, sometimes I asked others to pass judgement, since I had been involved in the debate myself.
So where does this leave us? Well, without taking sides in the argument, requests were made by me and by others for self-restraint. It didn't happen. So now, we are in a NO WIN situation. We're damned by some if we do nothing, damned by some if we do anything. Damned by others if we don't take some side, damned by ohters for not taking thiers.
In my view (and again, I repeat, I made no request, it was not my doing) it was time to act, and actions were carried out that in the view of those given the task, would do the most to accomplish the task of moderating. In my view, there must be no other option before I ask someone to be removed. Sometimes, the person themself prompts that action. What was done was done by the best judgement we could make. For that, apologies generally would be insincere. Love it or hate it, or have no opinion, there's really not much now that's going to change things. The number of total removals from this site have been extremely few, only a handful, and we're pretty willing to give people another chance. Let's let things die down so there's a chance to try again, ok?
Thank you for reading, and I hope you understand...
Mark