Ninja,

I agree this posting was bad.  I went back and looked at the different threads and this was *worse* than I originally thought.  I don't defend this guy's original post and in fact I condemn it.  (on probably more levels than most people would since I think it also detracts from my points about this site)

But my major problem is Steve seems to be above the law - he is the judge, jury and executioner for posters and yet won't hold himself to the same high standard.  He is the arbitrator of the bogus disclaimers on the site itself - and only caved due to pressure from the community to change "Supported by Red-Gate" but then swoops in on some knucklehead posting crap using his real name like he is the town sherriff.

What this site desperately needs is an Ombudsman - someone who ISN'T a paid employee of Red-Gate (or "contracted with" Red-Gate using the orwellian vernacular on this site) and who everyone agrees has some creds in this community. 

I have some suggestions

SQLBill shoots pretty straight

Brian Kelly is also a good guy who calls it like he sees it.

This ombudsman has no power but has a column where he can state what he thinks on issues.  My guess is that any ombudman worth his salt would be extremely negative about how this site is currently managed (competitors kicked off, bogus disclosures, bogus About page, hypocrisy) until some things change

The problem with money is it corrupts - not all at once but one ethical lapse at a time.  a false disclaimer here, a bit of hypocrisy there, some double standards here.  What we are witnessing is Red-Gate corrupting a venerable institution a little bit at a time.