If the moderatorial power trip continues I'm out of here, and by here I mean the whole forum. I've noted of late that the rest of the forum is actually pretty moribund, with little real electronics discussion of interest going on anywhere, mostly just the usual suspects grinding through their own personal hobby horses again and again.
I used to, until a few weeks ago, make a point of checking 'beginners' for questions that I could answer well and put quite a bit of effort into doing so. There have been so few beginner questions that I've actually stopped actively doing that. When there were a handful, those threads descended into the usual noise, from the usual suspects gainsaying and arguing with each other that any effort to try and provide the beginner with a clear, well formed, authoritative answer was doomed to get lost in the noise.
What has made the TEA thread in particular so popular is its very nature, including all the "technically" off topic asides. There's off-topic stuff across the whole forum, in most threads, and singling this one out for "super secret probation" while not applying the same degree of attention to the rest of the place while the usual suspects troll, bicker and insult with impunity is just pointless. All it's doing is pissing off a bunch of people who make the TEA thread what it is.
I also suspect that the past lack of any worthwhile moderation elsewhere is what's driving the whole forum moribund. Who wants to join in yet another thread where the usual suspects bicker with each other, or anybody else who comes along. It's probably too late to fix that as leaving the usual suspects to their thing for so long has probably polluted the culture of the place sufficiently to permanently poison it. It's worth noting that the electronics content of the usual suspects postings is close to zero anyway.
So, instead of tackling the usual suspects the one thread that is generally the home of good mannered bonhomie becomes the centre of attention.
None of the normal TEA inhabitants can quite work out Dave's rationale for this, or why we're hearing from the two moderators who are normally least active in moderating and not from Dave himself. The only rationale that can be divined so far appears to be that Dave's been pointing out to people that they should come to the TEA thread because it's where the addicts hang out - then he gets a few more subscribers who don't like it, so he proceeds to try and change it. Cart before horse error there I think.
I think that gnif's most recent spate of vandalism may be the straw that broke the camel's back. Don't be surprised if the TEA thread becomes the home of tumbleweeds and the people who made it what it was go elsewhere. The discussion as to whether that is going to happen is already going on "in another place", as they say in the mother of all parliaments.
Edit:
A trivial post from me "If people don't hear from me here, the cognoscenti will know where to find me." just got deleted from the TEA topic. Just to let people know that I was going quiet. So, if anyone is in any doubt as to the totalitarian level of moderation that gnif intends to apply to that thread you shouldn't be now.
I don't think there's any reason to debate this any more. It's pretty clear that TPTB, at least in their form as gnif have decided on a course of action pretty much guaranteed to destroy the TEA thread as we know it. I would not be surprised to see messages silently disappear from this discussion too. When moderators get so out of control that they have to try and control the conversation absolutely you know it's time to not waste any time debating it but just move on.