I think you can agree that a post that just has a smilie in it is in no way anything but spam. When you have to trawl through endless posts of them by anyone it gets annoying. Laughing at somone for getting banned for something they had a part in and then claiming it will never happen to them is what I saw... If one person gets banned for somthing other people should be banned for the same thing. That's how i see it.
As for the sending of abusive pm's to anyone be it mod or normal user... When a mod is made aware of it then yes, it is a serious matter. The way you have argued it above implies that bullying and abusive behaviour can not and will not be tolerated in public where everyone can see it, but in private you can do it without any problems?
The only reason abusive pm's between other users have not resulted in bans is because normaly we don't know about it, and unless people tell us there is nothing we can do.

And just to round of the post before I go and cycle up the Danube to. Loverly castle... I am sick to death of being seen as some kind of mad power hungry monster, simply because I have banned one very very very vocal member of the comunity for good reasons. Maybe people should stop and think about why a user has been banned (let's put it into perspective here.... Two days is nothing) rather than complain that a mod has actually had to ban somone...
Especially when it's not always me thats even banning this person. You can only be a hate figure for so long before you get sick and tired of people joking about you.

There is something to learn from it, and it's quite basic. Stop breaking rules and you can stay, keep breaking rules and you're not welcome. And that's the end of it really.

Also - if you're responding to something a mod has done over PM then yes, it is different than talking to a member as they have the power to do something about it. If you're rude to someone else in a pm and they actually come to a mod then sure a mod will go and do something about it but quite often they just won't. As far as I've seen Rince's pms back to you weren't rude or unreasonable, however yours were. I can't prove that, but I know who I'd trust in a situation like that.

Yes, Steph did stop when asked in the Chimp Records situation which I'm glad about because nobody wanted yet more posts from Chimpy in response.

Rince is not finding things to suspend you - he has a memory. If you break a rule then it's remembered and if you keep doing it some authority has to be taken. I can also see where rince was coming from when he said about spamming. You were posting just one smiley or something in a post - that's not a valid post, really, is it. I mean, I wouldn't say it's a really bad rule break but some content to a post is always quite nice...

The reason I'm increasing your suspension has been plainly stated far too many times - stop creating more accounts to get around it or I will increase it. I can't make it more basic than that, sorry.

EDIT: And while I was posting that you somehow got yet another post in. Do you see what I'm getting at yet?

One thing I forgot to mention I was not given a warning over PM.

I agree with this to a point too, but think of it this way...

We tell you who should be banned and why.
You ban someone else and we complain that they didn't deserve it.

Maybe this is a show of how we feel about who should be banned and who shouldn't and your just taking it the wrong way? Either way it doesn't matter, I understand that your only doing what you were assigned to do, and I totally respect you for wasting your time to take care of the forums. I was just arguing my opinion...If I insulted anyone, know that I had no intention in doing so and apologize here and now.

In which case the lowest common denominator wins and we end up like France under robspiere!!! Thralls to the mass opinion which can be manipulated quite easily by vocal mass media. If that's what you all want, then fuck you all. I have tried to be fair and open minded and have gotten nothing but complaint and violent pm's for it!! This place really isn't worth my time.