Hotel California--check out anytime you want, but you can never leave [Archive]

Army Chief

07-29-13, 18:37

In the interest of fair play and full consideration, we recognize your grievance, and certainly harbor no ill will against you over it. You have, however, been rather insistent in your language as I understand it, "demanding" account closure and such, and finding all staff responses to this "unacceptable." While not an entirely irrational state of mind on your part, please keep in mind that you are a guest here, and not paying customer who is entitled to some sort of refund on his deposit. This is a community for the open exchange of ideas and information -- not a credit union, brother.

I remain disappointed with the way that the Roberts episode went down, as does most of the staff here on M4C. Gary and I spoke of this more than once in an attempt to head off disaster, and exchanged a few mails to clear the air when it became apparent that his clear preference was to move on. There is no bad blood to talk about here whatsoever, though we recognize that he, and those who took open offense to his exile, probably were left with a bitter taste in their mouths to say the very least. We've owned the mistakes, righted the wrongs which could be fixed and moved forward. There is little room or purpose for further dialogue on that matter, as unfortunate as that may be.

What we can, and must, address is this business of closing accounts. As you were gently advised ...

It is generally M4C policy that user accounts aren't deleted. In the event that a member wants to return at a later time, they can do so with their join date and post count intact - a mutual convenience. Their site content, contributions, and integrity of threads are also preserved. Further, in the event that a member is disgruntled and returns with ill will, it also preserves IP data used to identify the member and deal with it.

I suspect this is your attempt to warrant a permanent ban, and thus secure your own fate; however, as you were told, a ban does not result in account elimination, either; merely the update of your member status to "banned." I see no justification for that here, nor do I feel it to be an action beneficial to either you or M4C. While I can relate to the Hotel California comparison, the fact is that you remain absolutely free to log off, and invest your time elsewhere. Not what we would desire, of course, but certainly your prerogative. You may indeed check out, and you may leave; however, we will keep your guest register on file, for the reasons that were outlined above.

AC