Listen, why is it appropriate to come on a Pine Barrens forum and talk about how you can't lose weight? And why you're single? And here, look at these pictures of these girls that I think are cute... And talk about the Long Island Pine Barrens...
I don't mind a certain amount of off-topic discussion -- I think it's healthy for the community. But at the same time people should know how to self censor themselves and know what is appropriate and not appropriate to post. Posting threads on Valentines Day about how lonely you are will only open yourself up to abuse from other people. Letting him talk about whatever he wants then turns me into the position of having to become a police officer and shield him from other people's comments, which will pretty much just be abuse. He opened himself up for it.
I am sure that if anybody here (even these so called "more popular people") started opening themselves up in the way that LIP did, they would get the same sort of abuse.
I gave the guy a LOT of slack. If he wants to get upset because I have a difference of opinion with him regarding the use of private bathrooms by unpaying customers, that's his problem. Nothing I said to him was abusive or out of line. It's common courtesy to patronize the business that you're using the bathroom in. But it's such a ridiculous thing, and one that, had he just talked to me off-line, could have been handled better.
If anything, LIP got preferential treatment from me. He got his own sub-forum, and the one restriction I put on him was to not launch tirades against illegals, which is a very divisive, political topic that will not have any positive effect on the forum. I personally did not like the LI threads, and I felt that the Long Island pictures that were going to show up in the random rotation on the front page were not good for the site, but I let it slide. Now I see giving him that extra bit of preferential treatment was wrong.
When you run a website, especially a community site such as this, you're forced to take on the role of (hopefully) benevolent dictator. I've made mistakes in the past, but I like to think that on a whole the site is so successful because of the way that this place runs. Many of you are members on Renee's and Barry's sites, and you can just as easily post there, but you choose to come here to do so, which makes me happy. I run this site as a way to give back to the Pine Barrens, since the woods have done so much for me.
That said, the site runs the way that I want it to. I am always open to suggestions, and on many occasions I have listened to the sage advice of others, but the final word comes down to me. If people don't like the way that I run this place then they're free to leave.