I thought when they were banned at one time (might have been a week) they basically threatened suicide as well because it was 'all too dark'. Since then they are under the umbrella of the protected posters. I mean just like when Eden was absolutely annihilated in a Star Wars thread, Excelsiorlef just got completely outed in that thread with their real aims and objectives and the thread was just closed.
Thing is era has had the most amount of turnover in staff. Only a handful of the originals have survived - yet moderation is getting worse. Now couple this with the select few posters that are unbannable, and you basically arrive at what most of the forums are saying. Era has it's own version of the 1% in positions of privilege, and they even have a class system within the userbase. Everything they despise. Why don;t the general forum posters unionise for representation - I'm sure the mods would be supportive of that......
So you have a very small number of consistent mods, you have a very select few who are close to the mods. As more mods have left the team the ideology has become more toxic, visible and overbearing. You can't add more mods to overcome a problem, you need to replace the mods that are the problem, the cockroaches that still scuttle round pushing their own shite onto people and protecting the posters that make that place fucking miserable. Will B-Dubs actually step up and identify as a man or stronk gender fluid ennbee and deal with the problems? Or will he remain in the background, a hostage to these mods and users just like the rest of the forum.
All in all, that excelsiorlef screenshot thread is everything you need to know. They make fuckign stupid statements or try to ban bait with reductive edicts, then when someone actually pokes into their opinions or points they crumble like a biscuit. After you spend the 20/30 minutes getting them to actually answer the really basic questions that expose them. Then, when suitably embarassed the thread is closed by the mods 'looking out for them' to spare them that public humiliation.