You did, in fact, have your chance to defend your post. You can't pee in the pool and then expect everyone to be understanding of why afterwards. If you want to be aggressive in your response you absolutely can. I do it all the time. There is, however, no reason to simply insult someone and then expect to defend it at some later date. That is non-sense.

Your very premise disagrees with this post. You claim not to be asking for the exact issues you originally brought up! You are welcome to disagree and offer rebuttals, byt not if it prevents other conversations. Bringing up Halo, or Mass Effect in a Sin and Punishment discussion (which is not a RPG). Why should someone be allowed to squash any discussion with flame baiting and trolling? How is Halo being a better game than Mass Effect (nothing is better than a Treasure game. NOTHING!) or vice versa remotely relevant? People are trying to discuss a game they enjoy, and should be able to do that without having to fight off people who have nothing constructive to add.

Simply put it boils down to why you are here. If you are here to prove your opinion is the greatest then your stance makes sense. Flaming, insults, and off-topic nonsense all fit. The forum is just there to fight it out. However, if the board exists as a place to discuss topics your argument holds no water. Off-topic baiting of people simply detracts, and distracts from the heart of the discussion. This forum is set-up as a place to discuss topics, not argue over who is the most right. There are many forums that will cater to the endless argument over who is most right, and you would perhaps be happier there.

You can try to change this site from the inside I suppose, but I doubt it will work. The moderators, users, and (most importantly) site owner want this to be a place for discussion for the most part. There are notable exceptions, but they do not typically stay long for one reason or another. I am not trying to dictate the intent here mind you, but I feel commentary on it is necessary at this point in the discussion. Fighting against the will of the majority is like punching a brick wall. The most futile point though is that even if you beat the wall, then the site owner will likely just take the forums down and start over again.

Sites that are catered to one group of people, i.e. PS3, Wii, or 360 forums are typically ran by fanboys and everything you say that opposes the console gets you a ban.

Not the best example.

Exactly, that's one of the things that I really like about this website.

I stopped reading where you said it's alright to flame people in arguments.

It is completely possible to argue with someone without insulting them. I actually really like this place because I don't have to deal with 12 years olds calling me a faggy shit sucking faggot or a gay 360 fanboy.

The mods do a great job on this site. If you say something stupid you get banned. Not that hard to figure out.

Well obviously, that's bannable, because it's a slur. But if somebody makes a stupid post, and you point out why it's a stupid post, you should have every right to say that it's a stupid post.

I'll agree on taking a punitive stance on stealth trolling. Take a look at GoNintendo's commenters to see what a place can turn into when that brand of trolling is allowed to reign supreme.

I always assumed it is completely alright to call a post stupid, just not the poster (there's a fine fine line).  That said you should probably say why you called a post stupid or else you are just asking for trouble.

I've seen some questionable bans from some mods, even as much as other mods don't agree with the ban as well, however having said that I think those bans are not the norm, but the exception.

If a mod was overly ban-happy, they would not be a mod anymore, case closed.

We are all human... except for maybe Squilliam and d21lewis... and as such we are prone to make mistakes/errors in judgement.

I have a really hard time understanding leo-j's current ban but I still laughed.

http://www.vgchartz.com/profiles/profile.php?id=5538

Reason for ban: Spamming (Really man? I just got onto you about the content/substance rule, and you make two posts in your own thread in a minute of each other, this one not adding anything. Remember the reason why a 4 word minimum rule was put in place? And the reason you can't post more than once every 30 seconds? It was because of posts like this.) ~ MaxwellGT2000 [3410893]