See, this is why I forsook my charter member status. This place is an arm of a for-profit entity. The moderators are, by choice, unpaid employees of that entity. I am willing to tolerate a certain minimal surliness from the staff in a space where I am there for free. Once even a trivial amount of money comes into play, though, I expect the staff to be uniformly and unfailingly polite, even if it is as they show me the door.
In fairness to the staff here, it is only a portion of them who are petty chickenshitphiliacs. It’s the same situation you see with cops, though. The ones who aren’t close ranks with and protect the ones who are. Interesting when you consider that they are unpaid employees. Must mean a lot to them to have that title under their usernames.