Great! You are a nurse. Now lets consider EXACTLY what has happened to the poor, poor Umatov. Has he been physically beaten because of this. Hmmmm.....no.... Has his life actually been imperiled? Hmmmmm....no.... Have a few people let him know that they despise that kind of behavior and let him know it is not welcome in the community?.... yes.... Have a few harsh words been said about Umatov and his behavior?.... yes.... Has he been banned from selling?.... yes... As a living thing, he was not imperiled. While you were dancing on your moral soapbox, Acadia, you failed to realize words are the only thing we have in an interent forum. Would I really want to see him hung for his thievery. No. I wouldn't mind if he had to be imprisoned for a while and then pay the money back that he stole from BlackHearted. Since we have no way of enforcing that, unfortunately, we must resort to the social punishment we have left. Ostracization. We are talking out loud about how we despise the practice. We are upset and duly so over a criminals actions. So we talk about it. We chastise him for it and "bash" him as you like to say. So what? If he reads it and his feelings are hurt. Oh well. I doubt from what I have heard about him he will suddenly come to grips with what a weinie he is and give back the money he stole. It lets Blackhearted and others who have been wronged vent to the community and when we vent back about Umatov, it lets them know they are not alone. That we too do not support that type of behavior. They feel more a part of the community and maybe don't just get fed up, fold up shop, and decide not to sell anymore stuff cause they feel their community is ungrateful or supportive. Since you liked giving extreme examples... what if you were stolen from and there was special gag order forbidding you to talk about it with ANYONE about it. You see people in the community want to know where that merchant went and they want to look to buy more products. You know for a fact that while he has been run off of the immediate vicinity, he may crop up again. Wouldn't you want to warn others and let them know? Wouldn't you want to look out for your community? Now, what if you feel the punishment was not harsh enough for the crime but that it was all that could be done? The social forum is all we have to discuss this. Since it truly physically hurts no one for you to bandage, there are no human rights violations going on and no harm done. Since it helps the community rally around and support the victim of a crime, it serves a purpose right there in strengthening the community. If you like Umatov so much, go bake him some cookies. We want to badmouth him. We're gonna. Whether there is a thread for it or no. The more you come here and attmept to defend him, the more fuel you give to the fire. Burn, baby, burn.