Yes, we read every single moderator report that comes in. I can assure you of that. However, Pale is the Community Manager, and I defer to him because I think he does a great job.
Understand that in order to get perma-banned, you have to REALLY try hard. We don't ban people without cause, we don't do it on a whim, and we don't get any pleasure out of doing it (frankly, it's a bunch of drama we don't need). Mario misbehaved repeatedly. Being facetious is one thing, but coming in and dropping f-bombs for no reason whatsoever is entirely another. He absolutely deserved to be banned. His tenure here doesn't entitle him to a blank check in terms of his behavior.
As for Ian, from what I see people don't like his opinions. I'm not going to ban anybody on this forum for their opinions. That goes against the very nature of what these forums stand for. Myself and the staff have watched Ian for a long time, and if he was breaking rules all over the place he'd already be gone. He doesn't launch personal attacks, he really doesn't swear, and he does raise points. I'm not defending the guy, but I am being fair. In all honesty, I've seen many occasions when Ian will actually raise a good point, only to be attacked with vitriol by several people who are reacting based on their opinion of him rather than what he has actually posted. It takes two to tango in any flame war. Some people simply refuse to walk away from an argument and agree to disagree, and would rather stoke the flames in a fruitless effort to prove that they're right instead of defusing the situation.
With that said, if somebody thinks somebody else is trolling, please use the Report to Moderator feature. That's what it's there for. For all of the complaining that people do about Ian, I can't recall any of the offended parties ever reporting his posts to us. If I'm wrong here forgive me, but I get all moderator reports in email and I look at every single one. I can't be in every thread, but I do get every email.
I can't directly control whether or not people stay or leave this forum. That's up to them. Instead, I'm going to focus on what I can control: the quality of Nintendo coverage we have, the timeliness of news, the quality and quantity of reviews, and the quality and quantity of special features. And rest assured that I am dedicated to improving all of those things. However, it will take time and effort. You guys may not see the effort from your vantage point, but it's happening. It will take some time to bear fruit, but the seeds are being planted. I hope you all stick around to see it.