Draug is right about the mod action in this case. First of all, it is COMPLETELY unreasonable to dock somebody points just for complaining about moderator action on the forum. Wow, talk about thuggery.
Second, he's also right that there was a clearly delineated consequence to his action, and that was the canceling of a game. Nothing he did was against any site rule. While it's true that various mods had said they would ENFORCE various results (though it always sounded like canceling, not docking) in the past few days, that is just part of the problem. When mods view their own declarations on a forum -- or emanations therefrom -- as a good substitute for clear written rules, you have completely arbitrary and autocratic rule of the website.
The response usually returned when this accusation is made is "Hey, we're volunteers, shut up and don't complain." So just ask yourself this: if you lived in a town that was governed by a board that did whatever it wanted, with or without rules, that had no accountability to the citizens, which chose its own members, and whose only response to complaints was, "Hey, we're doing this for free, you know," would you be happy?
Of course, a valid response to that would be, "Hey, I/we own this stupid site, you know." But is that really true? My understanding is that the fees for this site are in fact paid by users. (No, not by me, just to be clear). So to be honest, I really don't see where the mods get off acting like they do. I guess we all legitimize it by putting up with it, but it seems like thuggery and I question if we should.
I don't endorse a DoS, but I do think abge's way out of line here.
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Hey so I got a paid internship in my field.
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