: Eh. Historically, you've put way more visible effort into the whole thing than
: anyone else that I've seen, making you pretty much the only person of your
: group that I respect to a degree, so regardless of any formalities, headcanon
: says you're the guy running the show. Make of that what you will.

I appreciate your respect. Your "headcanon" about who runs what isn't relevant to how we do things, nor is it relevant to berating someone. I'm pretty sure you knew Hyokin was an ongoing host too, regardless of official status (we don't care much for official status either). He's done most of the sign-up posts the last two months, he's consistently participated in the threads, he's had a link to our site-- which he created-- under all his posts for some time now....

: Honestly I have no idea about any of that, nor do I really care. All of that crap
: seems like high school drama that should have been outgrown long ago, and all
: this talk of "bans" and such seems like basement-dwelling wannabe-Dungeon Master
: crap that nobody older than 15 should be doing, but from what I've been hearing the
: past couple of days, certain folk seem to be trapped perpetually in that state, which
: is unfortunate, but as I said, of zero interest to me. This site is for people who want
: to discuss/play Halo, so that's really all that interests me.

I don't understand what's immature about the concept of a ban and I don't know why you're insulting how we do things.

: That's all awfully presumptuous, but as I said, that high school crap doesn't
: interest me, and I'd hope that at least you are mature enough to agree.

I would hope the same for you, but if anything you've acted more immature here over the last few years, and the really frustrating thing is that I can tell you know what you're doing and you're able to control yourself because you rarely do it on DBO, a site you clearly care about more. I don't like to bring in outside events (which by the way I could do more of than I am here, and which you seemed to be alluding to and implying things about), but it goes to character, which is the reason for all this.

: Outside of Classic Customs, I've had, and still have zero interest in any
: sort of Custom games in Halo (343 made sure of that),

When you mentioned "SSD" increasing interest, we both thought you meant a custom game night like you used to do under that title, and that going along with that you might try to join our Customs Night; so what did you mean?

: though I've never doubted that I could join on one of your nights if I wished,
: given that I've assumed that you're a mature individual. And heck, maybe once
: Halo 5 drops, I may in fact be interested, but if people on this site are being
: jerks for no reason (especially to folks who are trying to bring a
: positive attitude to the place), then no wonder a number of regulars stopped
: attending your events.

I'm calling shenanigans right there, you posted one mostly positive thing recently (maybe two?), and you've been posting less recently, other than that you've been extremely negative the majority of the time around here for months if not years, towards developers and towards some other users.

It's not our place to punish you for that, and that's not what this is. I'm just telling you the reasoning behind the continuation of your ban.

: Honestly, I have zero idea why any of this is relevant in any way, shape, or
: form. It has nothing to do with what I'm going to be doing, and (given
: that I don't recall doing these things) comes off as a simple attack on my
: character.

I don't understand what you don't understand.

I told you why Hyokin said that, and why that decision was made.

That relates to what you're going to be doing by excluding our custom game night from the list of things that you'll be doing in the near future. If you didn't want to join anyway, that's fine, that's why it was a mistake to remind you of that out of the blue, among other reasons.

Failure to remember what you did doesn't change the fact it happened or the impression it left.

My post was not an attack on your character, it was (in part) a statement of shared opinion about your character: it's flawed, and that character flaw is not compatible with Customs Night or the people in it. I said this not to attack you, but to explain the statement that started this tangent.

: As Hyokin has already apologized to me above, he at least has
: acknowledged that all of this is uncalled for.

The tone and the presentation and the timing were uncalled for. The rest was not necessarily uncalled for.

: I rarely frequent this site, and haven't given people a reason for these
: personal attacks.

As I said, the attacking nature of Hyokin's post was a mistake, and was apologized for, and my post was not intended as an attack. If it still felt like one, then I apologize for that. If you feel upset by having a character flaw pointed out with no intent to insult you... well, I can't in good conscience apologize for that-- you deserve to know so you can fix it, and I don't see anyone else letting you know.

To that end, I realize now that "you're an asshole" isn't very valuable criticism and it probably muddied the issue, and specific actions at Customs Night don't apply well to other things, so I'll try to say it better:
You tend to be inconsiderate and abrasive towards other people, especially when you disagree with them or you think you're smarter than them.

: It's not exactly the sort of thing one expects from a so-called "community",
: and doesn't really help sell your Customs group as an inviting place, which
: may be why you seem to have an image problem with some folks (though
: I know Snipe is not losing any sleep over your "ban" either).

We're open to effectively anyone that has not proven themselves to be unpleasant to play with. We're also open to allowing people that we have previously excluded if they act better. That applies to you, Snipe, and anyone else that might run afoul of the "no jerks" rule in the future.

: tl;dr. Some Community Customs folks may need to grow up a little; you're
: alienating folks who only mean well.

I question your motivations and your means, but those and other questions, and most of the discussion that would follow on from this, would be better had some other way. The Community Customs side of this conversation is over for this forum-- I'm open to continuing it elsewhere; e-mail would be good.