There has been much talk lately of how a minority of members have been ruining the atmosphere in the upper boards. We've always had members who have been strongly opposed to this forum, but over the last year a mini-movement of bitter, anti-social members seems to have crystallised. Despite many of them having been banned multiple times, they have learned to sour discussion within the rules, and it has made the upper boards a very hostile place to be. Seeing no alternative solution, I have placed a number of members in the Purgatory membergroup. This group can see the upper boards, but cannot post in them. They are free to post in the lower boards.
In the past I have always vehemently opposed any ban I considered to be unfair, and no doubt some will charge me with hypocrisy. However, the forum is bigger than any member, or even any rule. There are plenty of RE'ers who strongly disagree with us, but who aren't complete twerps about it. The goal here is not to prohibit certain opinions or views. But the members we're banishing from the upper boards want this forum to fail, want it to become dead, and spend their time here with that end in mind. They ruin threads by preventing fruitful discussion, being rude, obnoxious, and living by the letter of the law and never its spirit. They take and take and take, and give nothing back. I think it is widely recognised that they have made posting in the upper boards unpleasant, and I don't see why we have to put up with it.
So I think on balance that this move is fair. It is fair to those members who want to have enjoyable discussions in the upper boards, and those who have tried to prevent that have received their just reward. We are their hosts, and they have abused our hospitality. Even now, we owe them a lot less than we are giving them. If and when they learn to behave like sociable beings, they may be allowed to post 'upstairs' again.
That is all.