I'll step in and say a few brief words here. First, Bill it's too bad that you've decided to leave. You've always been one of our best posters, so you will be missed.
Secondly, yes, good behavior on the forums starts with the staff. I have been guilty of idiocy on these forums and I'll fully admit it. But there are certain forum members that really need to look in the mirror as well.
Thirdly, if you think that I'm harboring some sort of grudge against Nintendo and plan to run this site into the ground, you're wrong. Dead wrong, in fact. I'll tell you what: come back in six months, come back in a year. Then we'll see where we're at.
Oh, I believe everyone, myself included, is guilty of idiocy. Like I said, once the staff members realize their behavior and act according to their status they should be fair and warn ANYONE that might disrupt the forums. So for every Mario that gets banned a Golden, Ian, Bill, S_B, pap, Easycure, Maxi or even Adolph Vega should also get their warnings.
The attitude is also carried over to the general gaming forums. To be perfectly honest I was very annoyed at the trolling that happened in my dead 360 topic. I was upset for personal reasons, and the 360 being dead didn't help. I was looking for ideas and solution, but what I got was mockery, trolling and annoying posts. Luckily it calmed down, but I still didn't like where it was headed.
This type of behavior should be controlled on all the forums. Like I mentioned already, start with the staff. Once the staff has accepted their behavior control the member's.
I think the problem with Ian is not his attitude but how often he shows it. Its clear that he has alienated himself (or to be fair, Nintendo alienated him) from Nintendo, and will be hard for him to see any good. That's the stance he decided to accept, nothing we can do to change his mind. However, it does become grating when it happens often.
Let me put it this way. You are friends with someone that is quite cynical. He makes a lot of good points, but don't like that he goes on and on about it. You are having a pleasant conversation about, say, kittens or cats. Then he drops in and says that nearly half a million become strays and much more are put to sleep. Its depressing, its a fact, but its annoying because they were talking about the fun of owning a cat, and the comment really brought things bought, and thus everyone is annoyed because a pleasant conversation went down the crapper thanks to cynicism.
This is the problem with Ian. Many of us just want to discuss a game, how good or bad it is, without diving deep into conspiracy theories, getting personal or seeing this through realistic views. Ian tends to be more cynical, and thus it becomes grating for some and why many threads are derailed.
The only solution to this is to ignore him. Yes, this is hard, but the reality is that Ian is not breaking the rules, his posts are well written and the very harsh reality is that
we are the ones that start the fights (I include myself in this, and my "No Ians allowed" mural in City Folk is proof enough of this ).
The staff, however, could encourage more positive and calmer discussion, so even someone like Ian could say something bad and people still keep discussing the topic.