How is this at all personal? This is the debate thread, and you keep bringing up valid points, and as such I am answering them.
We allow users the ability to use the Rage/ Ego as a way to play around, but that does not mean users have to be forced into being troll'd and made fun of at the expense of other peoples happiness. This is why we make a way out, which is in
*this* thread. This allows users who do not (or cannot) wish to defend themselves from frivolous pokes to just not partake in the section. Now, in the act of keeping the section lighthearted, that means we must treat all players equal, and as such, those that cannot poke back (e.g. banned users) should be automatically exempt from the section. They can't say they don't want to defend themselves, they can't defend themselves, and as such instead of the section being a "hahah i called you a nub" section, it becomes a "pick on the guy who got banned for uc because he can't say anything" section.
As for my comment about you not being a forum mod, I will agree without context it was a little out of line. What I was meaning is without any sense of sympathy we cannot do our job correctly; the world isn't black and white, and we can't make our judgement on black and white rules. At times you have to go with your gut feeling.