Plus each rule isn't that strict. It's the people who need to meet standards. All we're asking is not to talk about other people's business, respect mods and people, and to not add vote reminders on every save. Simple.
I actually disagree with what Simon said. The forums are really a community resource and a community gathering place. The job of the moderators is to keep the forums enjoyable for the majority of users. If 90% of the users want to allow profuse profanity, then that's what should be allowed(simply as an example). What I'm saying is, if a user lays out their ban and their arguments against it respectfully, then they should be allowed to let the community in, and if they feel it was unjust, it should be undone.
I say, if we need to talk about something, lets talk about it. But in a place that we can talk freely and safely without restrictions, ie. IRC on a private ## channel as compared to official # channels.
Actually, I have to agree with you on the whole ban thing. I think that we should be able to talk about banned people within reason. And I do agree that rule is kind of over the top. But I understand why they did it. There are a lot of people out there that would get out of hand and spread a lot of unneeded trouble for the mods asking why the person was banned and spreading rumors. Which the moderators have enough to do already without answering the questions on why they were banned. There would be threads in the forums that would pop up that aren't necessary. So I think that is the main reason why they put up that rule. The other reason is because it should be between the user that was banned and the person that banned said person. It shouldn't be publicized for everyone to see.