If we’re going to talk as if we’re in court, can I issue a writ of mandamus for a few bannings? 
That whole post seems to me to be completely non-responsive, because it precisely fails to address how or why the “changes going on here” will have any effect whatsoever outside the Pit. It begs the very question that it claims to answer.
Now, it could be that there are other plans afoot to deal with places like GD, GQ, and ATMB. I don’t know. But you can hardly deny that your thread was motivated, in the main, by the current debate over recent rule changes, and more specifically Rule #2.
Sure, the rule about taking all complaints about the board to ATMB, and the rule about no obscenities in thread titles, will have some small effect outside the Pit. But virtually no-one has been complaining about those. I think the first of those is a good rule, and i’m completely indifferent either way to the second.
What i’m saying is that i agree with your position regarding other forums, but those could have been addressed without completely fucking over the Pit, and the bad attitudes in those forums is not connected to the current controversy that seems to have gotten you indignant on behalf of the staff and the boards.
As for the attitude to the staff, i’m of two minds about that. When we’re talking about volunteers, i tend to agree, although no-one is forcing them to volunteer, and just because you don’t get paid doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be willing to take some criticism. But virtually all the ire right now is directed at the one guy who, as i understand, IS actually paid for the work he does in connection with the Straight Dope and these message boards.
I’m sorry, mhendo, but you are making an incorrect assumption about my motivations in re: this thread. 
Dude, two words: Vinyl Turnips. It would be epic.
I’d like to use habeas corpus: there are a few bodies that I’d like to see in this court.
Naked ones? :eek: