If you asked in a thread over there I probably missed it. I am certain I responded to one of your posts on AZ though -- with a multiparagraph reply. Here is my reply, in case you missed it:
Dave, like they say in legal circles, in full disclosure (do they really say that, lol), aren't you and Lou basically both from St. Louis, so you're sticking up for a long time pool bud that you know well from real life, as opposed to the internet? I probably would too if I were in your shoes.
Making a decision to ban someone is not easy -- especially in a small kind of tight knit community like One Pocket players, who have always been a minority among pool players. Anyone who has followed onepocket.org knows I have a long leash for members, and very, very few banned members over the 12 years we have been up. Also, I have NO corporate sponsorship so I don't have to worry about them getting turned off, so that makes it even easier for me to be extra lenient, which I am in comparison to most forums.
But what happens eventually if certain trouble generating posters persist hard enough, is that I get way too many other regular members telling me that they're out of there unless the tenor changes. And I'm not even talking about the victims of the digs and "fun" that are often the source of the conflicts -- you expect victims to complain lol. I'm talking about just average unaligned readers who get turned off by the bickering and attacks and counterattacks when they get too bad. And you know that for every person I get a PM or a phone call from, there are a bunch of others that don't like what they are reading but they aren't the type to speak up. And then there are the lurkers and perspective new members -- yes, I care about them too.
The recurrent perpetrators presumably have fairly thick skins or they wouldn't stomach flame wars they way they obviously do. But most readers at least by my anecdotal reckoning, do not. But thankfully, genuine cyber bullies -- as opposed to posters who are simply passionate, opinionated, misguided, impulsive or over reactive in the heat of an argument -- are few and far between.
I agree with you that both Lou and Dick actually have a lot to offer. It's just that unfortunately they often seem to prefer a good flame war over sharing interesting information. So I guess it's a mistake I will have to live with rather than living with the stress of the trail of flames that they bring with them. But I agree with you, it's a damn shame.
If it was another question from you then I probably missed it. I have a hard enough time keeping up over here do I definitely don't always keep up over there.
Then there is the question of whether they want back in or not.