It was actually my fault.
I went through and started deleting old posts (such classics as Religion: The Flamewar), and while I was reading every post in the Pub (yes, I read every post, whether it's addressed to me or not), I began to see what Gabe was talking about- in some cases, it almost seemed like his responses were designed to instigate as much argument as possible.
After reading a while, I wanted to reply, but felt that would only make the problem worse, so I started deleting threads. I started with the old posts that were months old, that no one had written anything in for at least a month or so, and once I got started, I deleted anything that had gotten off topic, become inflammatory, or become an argument. This accounted for most of the threads.
While I was doing this, apparently he noticed that someone was deleting posts, and drafted a profanity-filled response as to why we were censoring him. Censoring wasn't my intent, merely removal of waste, but I didn't notice that this profanity-filled post was new, and deleted it. (I thought it was one of the older posts- he had been pretty good about language after Ingo had told him clean up or leave)
He got up in a huff about it, and asked me if Ingo had done it, or ever done anything like that, and I told him the truth- Ingo doesn't censor the Pub, but he's not the only one who can delete posts. I even tried to tell him that I was the one who deleted his posts, and that it accidently included the new post... but I don't think he really heard it. He was all self-righteous about being censored, and ready to storm out.
So he left.
And then pretty much everyone else started posting again- Gabe came back, AJ introduced herself to our favorite watering hole, and traffic started to climb again.
Which brings us to here. More or less.
-KV
