I used to chide people for harkening back to the 'good old days' of Renderosity. Now, I have to admit that this place becomes less pleasant every day. I don't know which is worse, the increasing level of hostility (as opposed to passionate artistic or philosophical disagreements) or the fact that endless discursuons on technique have seemingly displaced any interest in artistic motivation or creation. Even as a non-artist, I find the latter somehow depressing, but what the hey, things change.

The banning - such a harsh term, why not just suspension - would have been a non-issue had the person not chosen to draw attention to it. Fair enough I suppose, since they obviously took it badly, maybe I would have too, I don't know. At any rate, I don't see the value in keeping the thing alive by pointing out the relative benignity of the local justice system while reveling in the Talibanesque policies of some other, couldn't get a date in high school, but now I have power, juveniles who infect so much of the WWW. McCoy was right, we need mechanics to fix all of the little tin gods.

At any rate, I usually find the OT posts a welcome relief from the usual but sorry, this one not so much. I'm sure others will enjoy it though - shudder. Someone puerile  enjoys calling people f***stick without fear of getting stuffed into a locker isn't news. Are we supposed to be grateful that we have actual adults moderating here or wistful that we don have such a "cool" and  "smart" feature?

Edit:

"(if anything I think it could stand to be rather a lot harsher)"

There's an idea! Maybe we could go from merely having sensitive individuals get depressed to outright suicide - culling the weak from the herd and all that. Maybe it's a generational thing or an ideological one but I seldom see getting tougher as the solution to human problems. Creating an atmosphere of ridicule punishment usually turns bad kids into worse adults and doing it to adults certainly doesn't change their behavior in most cases. Each to their own. You folks continue, I've learned when to stop reading these things.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken