[quote=@yoshua171]
I agree that it mods should not have to "answer to the public," or tell everyone why people were banned. Fine, very well, they do not want to create MORE drama aside from people getting banned to begin with. However, I do think that the person who gets banned, needs to be told WHY they were banned and that some sort of discussion should be had with them perhaps prior to the ban taking effect. Why? Because then even if they are angry they know why it happened to them. This allows the people to reflect on their actions, rather than remaining in a confused, sort of upset, limbo that makes them want to lash out because they don't know why these bad things are happening to them. Furthermore, if you have users know why they were banned, then if anyone wants to find out what happened they can just go ask.
[/quote]

This is fair. We generally operate under the assumption that people know precisely what they've done when they get banned but I can see how that isn't self-explanatory 100% of the time, and implementing your suggestion prevents people feigning ignorance even if they do understand. 

As for everyone else, I'll be replying to all valid points of discussion in this thread over the course of this week. I'd also like to make it clear that I definitely won't be banning anyone for speaking their mind about the administration in this thread... as long as they don't break any other site rules in doing so. Nobody is in the "firing line" for a ban here.