Inno- this goes WAY back. Readily agree that this topic occurs now and then in more recent years. ( You know. Recent years? The decades after John Updike first hit big? 
)
Melin’s banning was a major turning point. I’m almost certain that was the first time a regular was banned. People reacted…well, pretty much like it was an impeachment.
And I love this:
Gee, whatever happened to that guy?
It is to laugh.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Was Melin allowed back? I ask because I remember her name and that I liked her but she was banned a couple months before I joined and I didn’t lurk before joining. Y’see , someone was wrong on the internet…
I think she was reinstated, but was still seen as a problem. New rules were created, she opposed them, tripped over a new rule and was banned.
Interestingly, she and Ed stayed in (mostly non-hostile) contact for a long time after her second banning.
Hey. HEY!
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Oldster
We should ask tomndebb if he is still in contact with vanilla. I believe she lives not far from him, or at least she used to. Wondered whatever happened to her.
Vanilla, who wanted to change her screen name every week. No fooling.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Boy, that old LaSalle ran great!
I wasn’t around then, but my understanding is that Melin was first fired as moderator over a dispute with Jillgat, and then sometime later was banned over legal threats. A lot of drama in this board’s first year.
Searching on her name as a poster yields no results. Evidently this was so long ago that her name has become detached from all of her posts (as occurs with many posts from 1999 or so).
Oh gods, such a mess such a long time ago. I think I remember all of it. She nearly put us out of business altogether.
Let me explain. No, there is too much. (Really.) Let me sum up.
Melin was working as a moderator.
There was a large loud public argument between Melin and another moderator.
Ed Zotti told them both to knock it off.
Melin said no one could tell her to shut up.
Ed removed her as a moderator.
She continued to be difficult on the board.
I believe that’s when Ed banned her.
Melin went to Chicago Reader management and threatened to sue for defamation and etc.
She also apparently mentioned that she could afford to file and sustain a lawsuit because as an attorney she could do it from work and it wouldn’t cost her anything.
Reader management was extremely risk averse and took her seriously.
The cost of defending even the most frivolous suit is in the tens of thousands of dollars.
So management said if she filed they’d kill the entire site.
Reader management went on to do something we never do; they removed her registration and posts from the site.
Staff was told we were not to discuss this situation.
And they made us all sign NDAs. So we could never tell you our side.
I can talk about it now because all those people are gone now.
For a while there she kept signing up with other screen names, which we banned.
Ed was always polite to her because he didn’t want her to file a lawsuit. You don’t tickle the dragon’s tail.
I might not exactly have the order right, that was a long time ago. But that’s what happened.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Joined Feb. 2001 but lurked for some time before that. Another faculty member clued me in about the site. Hmm, which given the person definitely means 1999.
In other words: a total and complete n00b!
You wanna know how long ago this was? Instead of 504 errors, you got DIV errors. Bah-dum-bum. Be sure to tip your waitress.
To add a bit to Tuba’s post above, the mod Melin got in a slapfight with was JillGat who was a CDC type person and when Ed said “Both of you knock it off” JillGat did and Melin didn’t.
Melin’s “side” of things was way, WAY wrong. I mean, just objectively. The short version is that Melin had said something like “I’m colorblind so I don’t choose a ‘race’ on forms, government or otherwise” and JillGat said “That’s easy to say since you have white privilege. There are a lot of reasons to list it, public health being one.”
You can see Melin argue her “case” in this surviving thread:
Where'd Melin go? - About This Message Board - Straight Dope Message Board. See post #8 for a wall o’ text with Melin’s screed on it. (The majority of people in that thread are “Guest”)
She (Melin) claimed to be a lawyer and that was the best case she could make? Also, she apparently never heard that “brevity is the soul of wit”. 10,000 lines to say that “There’s no reason to EVAR give out your racial info, except maybe for health reasons, on any form.”
That thread has it all. Socks, flounces, accusations and denials and even the phrase “arbitrary and capricious”. It provides excellent background to many of the rules and traditions of the SDMB.
Thank you TubaDiva.
Thank you Fenris, especially for not screwing up the link.
I missed all that but I am pretty sure that was “one of the things we will not mention” when I first started lurking around this version. I never could quite decide if any of them were inside jokes or what; after a year or so I figured out that is was more a group of whats.
It was awful, all of it. Destroyed a lot of friendships. Affected me personally and professionally.
It was a terribly divisive incident in our history and it was just so unnecessary.
Looking back on it today mostly I’m just sad. Life is too short, ya know.
Please, let’s talk about happier stuff. We do have a lot of that too.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
should I prepare to die?
I have to say I don’t remember this particular dumpster fire at all, even though I had been a member for months by then.
It’s a sign that the drugs are finally working. 
I guess that is one of those memories I lost after my brain surgery back in '06.
Eh, never seen any objection to celebrating 99er-ness or for that matter AOL-ness.
Myself I’m a later 99er from when the Board went onto the regular interwebstubes, so missed, or was not yet active enough to notice, some of the epic battles of that legendary age. Prior alt.fan.cecil-adams reg, though (gotta say that was one fine, fine crowd) and of course even prior SD Alternative Weeklies and books follower.
So get off my lawn ye crick-necked “device” holding kids.
But the '99 age was interesting, as shortly afterward came the increasingly narrower segmentation of the forums. Did not miss the Winter Of Our Missed Content though, which did tick me off since in the mists of my memory I am convinced I posted some veritable masterpieces in those months. Then again the mists of my memory that far back are, shall we say, misty.
All of my contact with Vanilla/Rose was through the SDMB and Fathom. I have no outside contact and no information at this point.
So, it was a complete success!