"The purpose of the forum is an adjunct to the folk music collection known as the Digital Tradition. Ban guest posting, and you defeat the purpose of having a forum for guests to post queries about the Digital Tradition collection, or something they have not been able to find in it or the forum threads through the antiquated search engine."

That's been the bullshit excuse forever. Policy means 'Gee, I don't have to think'. Why not just ban the fuckers who do get nasty?

"I can't say I've noticed that happening a lot since one particular Guest got slapped - maybe I'm not looking in the right places"

Maybe you're not. Of course the Brits seem not to be able to talk about music without fighting, so perhaps they simply chose a chicken-shit way out and slapped the esaiest Guest. There were and are three other Brits who deserved the same treatment, but for political reasons, they didn't get slapped. I think your remark is uncalled for and cheap; closer to brown-nosing than common sense.