When we started posting at this site, we were told this site was "For Sports Fans By Sports Fans". The site was supposed to be whatever we wanted to make out of it. It was representative in the forum sofware, which was completely custom, and changed based on user feedback. The administrators and moderators were going to be open with the posters about what was going on. If posters were banned, we were supposed to be able to be discuss it in public, and find out what was actually going on. With the recent bannings, it is clear that this is no longer the case. Nobody has any idea what is going on. The general posters aren't being informed about why any of these decisions are made, and the moderators aren't being informed about any of these decisions either. As the site has grown in age, the forum has obviously changed. I guess a good analogy would be Animal Farm. Things were supposed to be different here, more open. What happened?
These posters violated just about every rule this forum has, repeatedly, and deliberately so. Tim was here to deliberately pick a fight, and proved it on AIM to me after I closed his thread. "For sports fans by sports fans" doesn't mean "for sports fans by guys trying to ruin the fun for everyone else." And it's not cool for someone banned to come back and post under a different name.
I sympathize with every poster who's upset and curious about what happened with GMJ/WarPoet/KC/pegs. But I don't necessarily think they should tie their wagon to a thread that was just one of a long series that completely stank of insincerity and deliberate troublemaking. These subtle critiques have been annoying as hell.