This is a private forum. There is no such thing of "community". Theymos was not elected, he was appointed. Therefore, he is entitled to ban whoever he deem necessary to protect his position and the private matters of this board. If you cannot cope with such harsh reality, here is not an appropriate place to you. You are free to leave at any time. But if you are willing to participate in this board, you have to abide with the rules and with who rules.
So if someone in power has not been democratically elected they can and should be free to do whatever they want, no matter how unfair or corrupt it is?
With that kind of mindset I wonder why you are even involved in the Bitcoin project.
I think if a man owns a house he should be able to do anything he wants in it. But Theymos does not own this house. He is merely looking after it for the benefit of us who live in it.
This forum is the heart of Bitcoin discourse. It has been since the very beginning of the Bitcoin project. It's not just some private forum that Theymos started.
Theymos doesn't have ownership. He does have a lot of power and a big responsibility, perhaps the biggest responsibility of anyone involved in Bitcoin. If he starts banning people for criticizing him, or any other subjective and extrajudicial reason, then it will negatively effect Bitcoin, and all of us in one way or another. This forum is too closely entwined with the entire Bitcoin project for it to be any other way. It always has been.
If Theymos can not maintain a neutral position, then he should resign and hand the reigns of power over to someone who can enforce the rules consistently and independently of their own subjective feelings or any personal criticism that has been leveled against their private business activities.
(...) Yes, I have had some fun on this forum. It has occasionally been at the expense of others. (...)
Oh, how pathetic... You admit to break certain rules but you cannot cope with rules being enforced by the administrator?
Actually I have only recently had my posting rights reinstated after a 14 day suspension as a result of making a poorly thought out "joke" post. I absolutely deserved it and you won't see me complain about it here or anywhere else, so yes, I can cope with rules being enforced by the administrator.
I don't have a problem with forum rules. Spammers, scammers and anarchy makes for shitty discussions. The problem is that the rules don't seem to be enforced in a consistent, impersonal and impartial way. If rules suddenly become more strictly enforced when the person who breaks them criticizes the private business practices of the administrator, then we have an unfair situation, wouldn't you agree?