The HG policy is to ban people from one forum at a time. If they do something to get themselves banned from one then fine, they can carry on on another board until they are stupid enough to get banned from that one. At times I think they are hasty, but for every one of those there has been someone else who got a friendly warning, if they ignored that then fair game. You can argue about things being implemented fairly all the way down the line, sure, but it beats a flat out ban everytime.
To me this is a good thing - we don't want sweeping draconian justice. They give people a chance not to be such an idiot again, we all talk out of turn sometimes, but then if they are that dumb all the time then they deserve what they get - but HG doesn't subscribe to the view that everyone who drinks is an alchoholic, so they should be respected, not criticised, for their broad mindedness on this issue. Think about it - anyone who got an immediate ban was someone who ignored a warning, who thought it didn't mean them, in other words someone who was already known, but even then there was some margin - wheezy etc didn't talk about things considered illegal on the forums, they were irritating idiots who were banned elsewhere and neanderthal enough to be proud of it, and they tried to turn every thread here into a dumb party thread, and they got told to go to the forum for that or else, but they didn't blatantly flaunt the terms of posting here by going on about warez, trainers, cracks or anything else they had been specifically told not to.
So, you screw up everywhere you get banned from everywhere eventually, and that's better than some Nazi policy IMO.
Sometimes you have to see the big picture. Some people are sad little creeps going nowhere fast - so let them, but let them with the tolerance that they are too stupid to show, because we don't always have to lower ourselves to their level - what goes around comes around ;-)
Of course, if you know for sure that someone is deliberately trying it on, that's different ;-)
[This message has been edited by Phill Phree (edited 04-02-2002 @ 09:39 PM).]