Look, I'm not one to add to the drama as a general rule. I tend to be be level headed and prefer to compromise, but I agree on this one that it looks like the moderators and the site admin have placed themselves in an adversarial role. I know you take a lot of attacks and I'm sure it gets old but that's part of the job. Moderators are supposed to moderate, not attack and not use heavy handed censorship. And if you're going to have a section for people to post questions and suggestions, then it should be respected and when someone posts a question or suggestion it should be addressed, not ignored or hidden.
In the thread that has been moved, the person who opted not to accept a free membership posted his reasons in a calm, rational way and in no way did he attack any other person. He never even mentioned which mod offered him the membership and he never said anything personal about the mod. The moderator, on the other hand, took it way too personal and turned his response into a personal attack on the person who posted. Then he apologized...then he attacked again.
Moderators and site admin should be setting the standard for behavior. When a mod goes off and starts attacking a member FIRST, that's not cool. I've never actually seen that happen on any forum besides this one, and I was pretty surprised.
And the delays in response or moving of threads to a location no one else can access is making it much worse if you ask me. This "You're either with me or against me" attitude is driving more and more people away. I paid $30 for a 3 year membership and to my dismay I'm watching people continue to leave in anger. The ones that are leaving now aren't leaving in a fit of angst over the site going paid, they are leaving because some of the moderators and frequently the site admin are refusing to address legitimate issues, are heavily censoring what can be said (way beyond the posted rules), and are moving threads to inaccessible locations. IMO, the site admin and the mods need to disengage their ego from the job and be more objective and less defensive. If they can't do that, they should be replaced with people that can. Mods that allow their personal feelings to interfere with their objectivity about applying the rules in a fair manner should not be moderators.
