Becuase of the level of interest from members, ive been asked to go into a little more detail with everybody, remove the 'cloak and dagger' aspect as it were.
Firstly, i know about the PM's/Emails circulating and have seen a couple, for those who havnt it reads:
You all may be wondering what happened with Brett being banned.
Brett asked me to message you. He hopes all of you are doing well
And wishes you all the best.
I hope these emails between Andy and Brett help explain things.
This is a message to all of you from Brett himself:
'After being threatened with a ban if I 'opposed' the administrator, I decided that wanted no more of it, and decided to air my feelings in the crypt (the name of the homepage of the dead secret forum where they slag off the members.) I was then banned.’
And includes a couple of screenshots from bretts email. As i have explained to a couple of people now, this is only half of the actual story and a very skewed view.
The actual incident started in the staff forum, and yes we do have a staff forum aswell, big suprise. Im not going to go into detail on the topic under discussion but it was starting to get heated and i replied asking brett not to take it any further. I Believe he had been drinking that night but am not 100% sure, either way, he responded to me (via msn) with a tirade of abuse, going absolutly mad, accusing me of 'censoring' him and 'accussing him of shit stirring' both of which were untrue and i tried to convince him of that but he wouldnt have it and continued giving me abuse, then he said he was going to post a reply to me here and i told him it was a bad idea as i couldnt overlook it on the forums.'
Now let me explain that last sentence becuase it seems to have been intererpated differently between myself and brett..
From my point of view, i am trying to protect brett from anything like this happening becuase we're good friends. Brett had had alot of warnings and second chances in the past becuase he was so popular and mostly becuase id stuck my neck out for him, i know what he is like when he's had a drink and am used to it and was perfectly willing to overlook it over MSN and not bring it here at all as it was a personal argument, but with brett now threatening to bring it here, i cant overlook it then or else it brings my job into question, especially considering his previous history.
From bretts point of view, as far as i understand it, he thought i was threatening him with that last line and thought i was out to get one over on him. Similar to the story im sure alot of you have already been given.
I didnt see his reply that night anyway but the argument continued over MSN until he decided to block/delete me, i still took no action at this point as i thought it would be a end to the matter apart from maybe a awkward conversation the next day, anyway i came online the next day and brett has made his reply at some point during the night, giving me more abuse this time in front of everybody, i must stress at this point, after being asked not to bring it on the forums and told that no further action would be taken as long as it stayed over msn, brett chose to post his reply himself and much to my dissapointment.
That is the original incident that got him banned, after his ban i was willing to talk to him and maybe work it out, i would of been willing to lift it at that stage but since then he has sent me a particullarly nasty email, spread rumours around about me and revealed certain details about how the backend stuff works around here, which in my opinion reinforces the call for a permanent ban.
Couple of footnotes..
1. This was not done on a whim or to get one over on brett, like i said he was a very good friend of mine and i did not want to do this, but he had more warnings than anyone else would get and he had left the forums 'never to return' a couple of times in his history, he had only been allowed back previously becuase i pushed so hard for him. So i feel like the way i am being villified is unfair.
2. Bassman, i am sorry you heard about the basscunt thing, i didnt actually make the name up myself (im not saying who did) and brett participated in that conversation aswell, something which he probably omitted when he told you about it. Not point scoring or anything. There was never any real threat of you being banned, it was just blowing off steam which we are all entitled to do, Anyway, i do genuinely apologise.
3.Members calls and pleas for bretts return are not being ignored, everything has been considered in what has been a very difficult decision, i have just yesterday let brett know (through a mediator) that i am willing to talk to him, i want to salvage some of our friendship if possible and i would consider allowing him back once we have cleared the air, but brett has made it very clear that he will only return if i meet some very unrealistic conditions of his.
4.This was my decision and mine entirely and as forum owner and manager that is my prerogative, the super mods and neil were not involved directly but support my decision.
5. Finally, Chic, no it is not my site.. its neils site, i own the forums, the software and license but neil owns the site and the name 'homepageofthedead'.
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Originally Posted by bassman
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I guess now I know i'll be "going for a walk in the woods" soon 
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