Since this is not in the "normal" forums, maybe we can be a little more understanding on the language and insults, this is a good conversation we tried to have a year ago, and it was TOO heated to even approach.
1) Rocket- You do see the irony in saying we should ban someone when we are talking about lifting bans dfo you not? I assure you it is NOT a lack of backbone that prevents us from banning people. Make no mistake, some will be staying banned (becuase they were banned by someone that was obviously not politically motivated, and there is a clear reason why noted).
2) DaJersey- You're right, should have been done long ago, there are no excuses, there are reasons, none of them good enough. But is it ever too late to right a wrong? YOu are also right, we don't want a whining cesspool of crap either. This should NOT be full of drama. I fully realize I am stirring the *** by taking this on. But I think some have a legitimate complaint, i'm kind of a hypocrite if I don't try to fix it.
3) Dirk- Sorry, it's not true (that you are not wanted). Some feel that you shoudl be a member to play here. Well our vendors do not,and we do not. Adiditonally, we have a LOT of people who don't own a car yet. I WAS one of those people, I bought my first Viper in 97, because of this site (OFF this site), and why would I pay to be a member if I could never get the car? This will NOT change. I can not change how others feel about that, however, and they have a right to their opinion (if respectfully posted).
I've gotten a lot of comments off-line on how to do this. It will be a long, tough journey, there will be some bumps in the road. At the very end all that might change is I might have a "reason for ban" noted, and if that's all we get, then even that is an improvement. We have a few dozen people, banned by two people (who their own decisions were rightfully being questioned) at a time when they were being questioned, with no reasons given.
The most damning comment here is why didn't we do this earlier. Well I tried in the Feb 14 time frame. If I were to post what the responses were back then, I'D be kicked off here. And I had enough drama from everything else going on at the time. EMotions were high, feelings were raw. I have recently talked to some that were banned, and I have reason to believe (as ROcket states) that some of the "hate" has dissapated. Not in all cases, and cot completely, of course. Also, we are in MUCH better shape now than then.
Some will say this is from a position of weakness (if you got to read what I read, it doesn't matter, everything we do is spun every which way, you'd think we were running for president), It's the opposite, it's because things are going well, things are stable, that we would even attempt to rip off a scar from a year ago.
