I'll weigh in here just a bit.. and reiterate (sorry.. it is the only word I could think of..) Arts comments are right on the nose. First off. Contrary to popular belief, were not making any significant money off this forum. We've tried over the years, we got rid of banners and advertising, cause people either never paid their bills or by having a banner, they thought they had even more right to spam us or want special treatment. After having to be moved to a dedicated server what little we make monthly off the Google ads pays the bills. That's it.. no big mystery.
Secondly, the mods do have lives and jobs and family's, some of us have businesses, some of us have day jobs, some of us have to go away for weeks at a time for work, and occasionally some of us have health issues which prevents us from being online to babysit all day long. So when a post gets removed or edited, you have to remember the fact that you just took time out of a moderators day.. his NON PAID time to edit something you said that you likely already knew was close to or was crossing a line. So if the mod is gruff, or DOESN'T SPEND MORE TIME to write you a nice little note explaining to you why your an idiot (hopefully in small words so the user can understand) you'll have to forgive us. Most of the mods here have been doing this for yes... 10 years, and although I stay out of the mod business. (I have received veiled death threats regarding MY family from users... I'm not kidding..) I am amazed at the jobs the boys do. This place wouldn't be here without them. If you had see ALL of the stupid crap that people do here.. over time you just wouldn't believe it. So bottom line is.. and here is a metaphor you can use.. If you drop a cigarette butt in our house and we pick it up without telling you, it doesn't give you the right to do it again, just because we didn't tell you we picked it up. You should have known better in the first place.
10 years.... members come and members go. Its just the way it is.