[Glathannus]

As someone who wants this site to flourish, I can understand where the previous administration was coming from in how they felt the "haters" were tearing the community apart, even if I disagree with how the administration chose to deal with that.

I don't have a problem with either side of the Old vs. New conflict, as long as people on both sides are being constructive about it. I think what happens is the key advocates of each side have already spent so much time trying to make their criticisms or defense constructive, that they start slacking on the job of continuing to be constructive, because everything they've already said is 'established', so the debate plays out like television commercials where the longer (and informative versions) are shown first, then shortened versions keep getting replayed just to refresh your memory. But if you didn't catch what was going on before, then you feel all-the-more alienated.

It's become established to hate all over Ukigumo with little or no continued 'reason' at all, because "everything's already been said". In this kind of atmosphere, most of what the new members see is a whole lot more of "Uki sucks", than what it was ever based on. And if you ever try to revisit the reasons after newbies have already seen all the blunt hating, then you're "making excuses", and any attempt anyone feels they could make to challenge those 'excuses', will go through an increasingly 'personal' (and therefore 'pointless') battle of Hard Sell.

If this community is damned if we do, or damned if we don't (on silencing/banning the "haters"), then we might as well support Free Speech. It's a double-edged sword that's self-policing only when multiple sides actually have the motivation to be completely open and constructive, rather than dispirited members/lurkers talking to their buddies through other channels about how this community is eating itself.