Classy post. Moderating the 75th (last I saw) largest vbulletin forum on the planet is not an easy task. Have you ever talked to one of the moderators over there? They are very level headed people who are just doing their job. It's really pretty simple, if you break the rules (for instance getting the profanity filter 4 times in one post) you get an infraction. Enough infractions and you get probation, keep it up and you get banned. Does your workplace have any rules? If so are there repercussions when they are broken? Same concept, different forum (no pun intended).
You are correct Skull that it is a business adventure, and you better believe that a forum as large as RC is bringing in some pretty big dollars from site advertising and sponsorship.
Just like a bar, if you start simply tossing people out onto the sidewalk by over bouncing every sitaution, people will simply stop coming. It doesn't matter how many people want to give you advertising dollars if the advertising base dimimishes.
Sounds to me like RC has some pretty strict rules, with some pretty harsh reprocussions, and fail to provide level headed examination of the situation from BUSINESS perspective.
They need to realize that the are making the money they make because people visit their site. WIthout those people, its really hard to get sponsorships, advertisers, and other sources of income.
Because of all of the comments here, I have no interest in joining RC. If enough people are like me, I hope their rules were worth their sites failures.
People have to agree with the level of rules to not leave because of them. Sounds to me like the majority of their members think their rules and punishments are over the top.
