Edith Grove wrote on Jan 4
th, 2009 at 5:35pm:
I was glad to see the thread locked, but is MM out or on probation or what?
No one was banned or anything like that. The thread was simply locked as it's only purpose was to offend. MM realised what he did was unwarranted and it's no longer an issue. People make mistakes.
Look, whilst we would prefer it if people just discussed music, its naive to think this board is going to exist in some kind of vacuum. That said, why anyone wanting to debate politics would want to specifically look to a Rolling Stones board to satisfy their thirst for that sort of thing is beyond me.
However, if you're going to discuss or debate politics, its not much to ask a group of adults to do so in a civilised manner, without making sweeping statements which are insulting. Especially when - on an international forum - its being read by people from different backgrounds, races and nationalities. No one should be made to feel unwelcome or uneasy from using this site because of their nationality, religion, sex, race or orientation. Simple as that.
Banter is all well and good, but everyone by now should know what is and isn't acceptable and too often posts are made simply to rant, provoke, goad or insult. If you think your post might just fall into that category, then simply don't hit the 'post' button.
As for the excuse that there's no Stones activity, it doesn't matter. If we're going to discuss the Stones on a Stones forum, it doesn't have to necessarily be dependent on 'news'. There's 46 years of history, a couple of dozen albums. about 350 songs and over 2,000 shows for people to analyse,reminisce and argue over. Start a thread on something Stones-related. You may be surprised how many people might be interested.