I wish you'd stop doing this. Like many others, I've put requests to CG.com that have experienced delays in response, so you're not alone and nor have you been picked on IMO. They're doing their best but not even they can give everyone what they ask for all the time.

As for bans, I don't recall a suspension that hasn't been well earned by the recipient responsible and you've surely noticed there have been a lot more than just nanobrain - who, let's face it, worked hard to earn his ban. If anything admin have tended to err on the side of forgiveness when there has been plenty of justification to be merciless.

Yeh, looks like I've hounded them in 2009, 2010, and this year. I believe one of the notables wrote something like, "Nowhere is patience more a virtue than in chess."

This. I keep waiting for power to go to their heads but they refuse to drink the chalice.

<I for one hope it never ever comes to a [one-strike-and-you-re-out policy]>

If you want to alert us to sockpuppets you can use email or the Whistle function, but frankly you're probably wasting your time, because we're in the position to actually know the truth already and you probably won't tell us anything we don't already now.

First a summary of the facts. Nanobrain broke a posting policy. (We won't say which one(s)--that's between us and nanobrain.) Now when nanobrain attempts to post, he gets a terse message saying that he was determined to have violated posting policies and needs to contact chess@chessgames.com.

Now here is how this can be resolved:

1. Nanobrain needs to send an email to chess@chessgames.com that says words to the effect of "I see that I'm on probation and I would like my posting privileges restored."

2. Then we write a letter back quote the offending material (or at least part of it) to make it perfectly clear what the problem is. Then we ask him to promise to avoid breaking our rules in the future.

3. He writes us back, says "I promise to abide by your posting policies!" or words to those effect. He can phrase it in his own language. It doesn't have to be an apology, just a promise that he understands our rules and will do his best to comply.

4. Then we remove the probation.

To date, step #1 has not been completed, so he remains on probation. It would take him 60 seconds to get the process underway. One might think that asking a user to send an email promising to abide by the rules is not much to ask for.

However tolengoy argues, with a gossimer thread of logic, that this is in fact entirely unfair. Why? Because earlier this year we placed 7 members on an exceptional one-week probation to solve a "flame war" and these people were NOT required to send emails at the end of the week. We treat some users differently than other users, and violated the "equal protection clause" found in the 14th amendment to the US Constitution.

Tolengoy has such a tortured argument I don't think he even believes in it, since this is my final statement on the subject I feel compelled to deflate it for the sake of thoroughness.

Here's the crux: Chessgames took "exceptional measures" on 7 members because Daniel Freeman perceived what was effectively a state of emergency. Daniel made up a solution out of thin air. If this was not merely a website but an actual nation, this would be the behavior of a dictator. Perhaps a benevolent dictator, but a dictator nonetheless.

But guess what, tolengoy? Chessgames isn't a nation. We don't have a Constitution. The 14th amendment applies to the Congress and US Legislatures but it doesn't apply to us. And if Daniel wants to solve problems like a benevolent dictator, that's his business.

<Going in reverse order>

I don't think that's a good idea...