Mod's discretion, it seems, and no standards.
In all these pages of talk, countless times it has been asked, "What did we do wrong?" Maybe, you know, so we know what is kosher and what not. No answer, other than, "our rules state that we can remove anything, any time, for whatever we feel like". Or "PM us for details", like getting to know how to speak on a public forum should be a private secret, that is your job to inquire about after you've been targeted. It has already been said they don't have time to explain themselves to you. So what's the point?
Basically, it is your job to know and get on the right side of every mod... Kiss up, sweet talk, cuddle them... Make a list of each of their favorite soaps, razors, brushes, and vendors and be sure to love each and every one of these things as much as they do. Don't, and your posts may get thrown out for speculating why Cobra is constantly out of stock, like Rob and I did.
Sure, they have the right to do it, it's their forum, and this is why people create new forums and leave once there's a better option. But talking publicly about this can help prevent such a split if both sides are willing to listen and work together. Will this forum survive such a split? Probably. B&B survived when the first aggrieved members came here, but B&B is a much less colorful and happy place to be after their various splits and banishments, and I would venture to wager this place might be too.
Forums live or die on the quality of their members, and I think people are fooling themselves to think, "hey, it's only 2 who've left. Sad, but there are plenty more." I would guess that for every one that leaves publicly, 10-20 more leave quietly, not having time for drama or arguments on a hobby that should be pleasurable, and is ultimately private anyway. Mark my words, if the no standards, arbitrary over-moderation continues, the culture of this place will change, and you won't even know when it happened. People who care about this place are trying to prevent that, but if one shaving forum is as good as another for you, there's no reason to continue following this debate. Just go back to your SOTD thread and take a nap. No reason to to let this kerfuffle disturb your stupor.
(One last note, I do Admin a forum, non-shaving related. Payments for servers and software is once a year, and takes 10 minutes, tops. Once the software is set up, little to no maintenance is required. The back end, behind the scenes work is virtually nil. The only exception to this is if you get hacked, are overrun with spam, or if the site crashes. Then, you are very busy for the short and rare amount of times this occurs, and then you're back on auto-pilot.
If Admins aren't present, it is because they aren't present... Can't be bothered, or have more important things in their lives.)
