Gombessa I don’t harbor any grudge towards VerticalScope or platuser (any of the community managers who share the account); I knew full well when engaging substantively with these threads, re. impact of ads, use of ad blockers, other piano sites being set up as alternatives to PW, that these might be sensitive topics for the site owner, to have a moderator—even a volunteer mod—be involved in or make moderation decisions about.
You are being much more generous toward VS than I would be. From the Rules & Guidelines at PW:
violation of the rules discussed here or any other behavior deemed by the moderating staff to be inconsistent with our desire to make Piano World a welcoming, friendly place may result in suspension or termination of your ability to access the forum.
You did not violate any of the stipulated rules, nor did you post anything that was ever unwelcoming or unfriendly. In addition, my understanding is that before any ‘normal’ ban, there has generally been back-and-forth with the banned person and an explanation of the ban to the person (although not to the community at large).
If there are separate rules for moderators and you broke one of them, then it seems to me that the correct course of action is to tell you that VS will no longer avail itself of your moderating services, but not to ban you from the forum.
Anyways, you may not feel this way, but I feel that this situation was handled by VS in an entirely unprofessional manner that does not reflect well on them. I went back a few weeks ago and looked at PlatUser’s very few posts. They discuss VS’s commitment to community, and there’s also a lengthy post about how ad plastering would be negative for their business. All I can say is that he was right. Ad plastering is negative for their business, is destroying the community, and that destroying the community is a sure way for the forum to be degraded. It’s all very sad and a terrible shame, but this has been mismanagement and misjudgment on their end. And they know this! They said all this 2 years ago, when they bought the site!