I can't say I have an opinion of mahoganny. Perhaps it's because I'm not frequently reading the politically hot topics. Either way, in doing a search on mahoganny's posts, it looks like a number of them had sections redacted and it seems that person liked to use sarcasm in their posts, but sarcasm is very difficult to convey via written word and more often just comes across as offensive. Much of what I did read was not unlike what I might hear from some of the professors I know who mean well but can be socially inept / insensitive. That being said, I do not have a moderator's perspective and there may have been much more to this case than what is seen at face value on the posts remaining by this person. I appreciate that Parasaurolophus has made this decision known and that it was done in good faith. But nothing is there to prevent this person from creating a new moniker and continuing to make posts in the same way.
It is clear that over the past few years that the forum has dwindled. Although there is still a good number of people coming here for conversation and the value of the forum remains high, we tend to be a smaller and smaller group of people interacting. I'm not sure if the substance of mohaganny's posts would have been banned on the old forum, with so many more people and interactions. With a smaller group, the forum seems more "tame" and, in some ways, more collegial too. But our tameness might not be due to a change in our patters of behavior, but a result of fewer newbies stumbling in here. Anyhow, I trust Parasaurolophus made this decision for the right reasons and that it was not an easy decision to make.
