It's kind of odd, I must say, that unlike a proper ruling body, the mods here don't seem to be at all accountable to anyone but themselves--which is a recipe for disaster. Did you ever consider that perhaps there would not have been any drama--or at least as much--if the bans had been explained to begin with? If there had been proper responses to some of these questions? If a number of the issues addressed had been dealt with when they'd happened rather than let to escalate.

I was there for a number of these things, lurking, or communicating with observers or those who were also directly involved in an effort to just understand what was going on. When you, and the other mods, choose not to answer questions, or at least make an effort to actively explain to someone why they were banned you PLANT THE SEED FOR DRAMA. Sorry, but silencing  people (which I have seen done in the discord channel before--not in a figurative banning, but in mods LITERALLY deleting posts in a futile attempt to stifle discussion) is not the way to make them stop thinking about, discussing, and eventually bringing forth issues.

It makes people angry, it makes people feel as if something more is going on, and in the absence of REAL ANSWERS, they create their own and MORE drama is created, rather than less. It creates a systematic and recurring issue where past drama continues to create future drama, which leads to further issues for you mods to deal with.

This is one such example and it is not the first time this sort of thing has happened. The other examples, posted in the OP of this thread, are also indicators that telling people to shut up (or shutting them up forcefully, either unintentionally or in a way that it appears you have done wrong) does not fix the problem. Furthermore, when you say that the mods do not have to explain themselves to ANYONE...well, it makes A LOT OF PEOPLE raise their eyebrows and ask "Well why the hell not?"

Like, the mods aren't unbiased, perfect decision making machines. You're people who can make mistakes, get emotionally invested, or misunderstand a situation just as easily as the rest of us. The only difference is the mods have the power to ban people, lock threads, delete posts (on the forum or in the discord), and make what amount to executive decisions for what they see as the betterment of the guild (or to keep the peace, as it were).

People with power, moreso than people without, should be accountable for their actions, because their actions create bigger ripples whether they like it or not. Just like how I imagine none of you enjoy the fact that threads like this pop up. Additionally, the mods seem to act like their reputations don't exist, they do. The reality is that when issues of the same vein are not resolved and are instead silenced or ignored you lose face, and when you lose face people feel less inclined to talk to you about things that worry them, things that you very well might want to address if you knew.

I know quite a few people who have looked at this thread and probably said to themselves "Is it worth saying something, knowing that in the past people have (by all appearances) been banned for speaking against the mods? Do I want to risk a ban just to express my worry and my opinion?" That is not a fear that people should have here on a place we all come to have fun and, often, relax to escape the stresses of real life. People shouldn't have to be afraid of talking to you and when you don't explain why you make drastic decisions, you create ripples, and those ripples create misunderstandings, and those misunderstandings become "unknown gaps," in people's knowledge.

And you know what they say [@Hank], there is no fear stronger than the fear of the unknown.