First, let me just say, I appreciate the time and effort you (and everyone) puts into this site. I really do appreciate it and I thank you all. But ... at least one? I would hope, unless it is an extremely egregious case (which I haven't seen), that individuals would be getting more than one warning before a ban, temporary or otherwise. One warning: "Come on man, don't go there with this like that." Two: please, I told you this isn't how to respond here. Three: sorry, three strikes you're out. (It is baseball, afterall.) Unless it's completely out there (and, as I've said, I have yet to see something that egregious) I would hope there is a system of 'punishment' as there is a system of 'rules.' Otherwise it just seems completely arbitary how this is doled out. By giving more than one warning, it allows the person time to adjust and acknowledge and understand where he/she went 'wrong.' If a particular individual is being banned often, well, then that's a discussion to have amongst yourselves. Or maybe we could have a 'vote off the island' a la Survivor? (okay, yes, I'm kidding) As to inanity, there was a thread, since locked and deleted, that should never have started. The subject title as well as the original post was COMPLETELY MORONIC and it didn't take much to know exactly where that would head, and did go. While I hate censorship as a rule, that was a thread that should have been deleted, or edited at the very least, at the onset. I don't even remember the subject of that particular thread or even who started it, but the ugliness that followed could have been avoided. I think it was the thread that ultimately triggered the rules and moderation. It wasn't started to bait anyone, either, it was just a completely stupid thread and the discussion that followed basically said so and then degenerated from there. It's those instances I wish for moderation, not on snark. Lastly, the tightened bolt analogy. Sigh. This is the exact advice my mom gave my sister before her first middle school teaching job. Start tough, show them who's the authority in the classroom, be swift and consistent with the 'punishment' so that the kids know what is expected of them, and then you can loosen up later in the year. Seriously. But I guess if there is a small handful who will behave like middle school kids, then I guess we all have to 'pay' by having a finger shaken at us. But, in the end, I come back to read about baseball. It's really nice to have a place to do that and to 'connect' to Twins fans when I live among a sea of White Sox fans. I even once had a parking space in my building next to Kenny Williams. He since moved but he's an ass when you are a 'nobody' to him. And he almost ran over me and my niece with his Hummer. And that says it all.