Ok, I think the real issue continues to get muddied between all the insults and distortions.
Let me reiterate, Rex was not banned for his
FAQ (regardless of it's expletives), Rex was not banned for saying 'Puke', Rex was not banned because he is blunt, Rex was not banned because we wanted to create a 'Disneyland' environment, and the new user agreement updates were not only because of Rex.
Rex had received warnings about insulting people, and even had was given a second chance even though he should have been banned the second time it was mentioned. But, maybe we made a mistake by giving him the benefit of the doubt. Obviously it didn't matter even after he had been asked.
Not only does the stock phpBB user agreement have
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws
But the website UA has
This a family site intended for people of all ages and skill levels to come learn and share their experiences. Profaninty, insults, personal attacks, or posts of this nature will not be tolerated. If you engage in such a post, it will be edited, and you will recieve a warning. If it happens again you will be banned. If you have a problem with a post notify a moderator or Admin and let them take care of it.
Plain and simple, Rex was temporarily banned because he insulted an individual. Specifically, the last incident involved a person not understanding measuring
CO2, but after they questioned 'why' what Rex said was so... Rex replied with:
Now if you can't understand that fact and want to dispute it that's fine. But at that point I will be forced to take this discussion private and start questioning your mental abilities and your parentage
Don't get me wrong, Rex has been helpful on many occasions. Some people appreciate his direct way of explaining things. But this was not being direct, it was belittling and insulting. If this was a young child, how friendly does it sound when someone basically replies "If you don't get it, then your an idiot inbred". But honestly, does it even matter if it was a child? Would you want to ever ask a question again?
This is absolutely NOT acceptable, and he had been given multiple chances to stop. We never asked him to be what he's not... he could have just as easilly never posted again if he felt the requirements were too stringent upon his personal expressions, regardless of how he wants to portray himself. I'm not sure how much clearer I can be than that.
Family friendly, at that point, had nothing to do with it. I would hope that any site would not allow a person to just prance around insulting people as they go, regardless of the quality of information they reply with in the process.
This has nothing to do with making PlantGeeks 'Disneyland'.
It has nothing to do with the fact we have members as young as FIVE on the forum.
It has nothing to do with protecting the children that come to PlantGeeks.
It has nothing to do with the fact that Rex violated the membership agrement by creating a new
ID after he was temporarilly banned.
It has nothing to do with the fact that after he was banned, somehow he felt the need to say goodbye to everyone on this horrible forum keeping him down... in
every single forum on the board.
So regardless of what is thrown around about what he has distorted into why he was banned, it only has to do with the fact that we don't think that insulting people is acceptable, and he agreed to those terms when he signed up. Plain and simple.
Hope that helps to clear things up...
- PDubya