[Announcement] Why the forums were down

[Krang]

I just wanted to let everyone know why the forums were down. The reason is that as many of you know, on Thursday, several flame wars erupted between different "factions" on the forums. I've been very busy lately and have had many other things to do besides using the internet, so I didn't have time to sort out this mess and clean everything up at the time. Because of this and because I figured that everyone apparently needed some time off from the forums, I decided that the best thing to do would be to shut them down for a few days. They're back up for now, but pretty soon, it will be the staff's turn to take a break for a few days (you'll see what I mean soon).

While I won't be giving out any warnings this time, I wanted to make it clear that from now on, this kind of behavior will not be tolerated. If it ever gets this bad again, I will remove all references to these factions on the forums, including completely disabling avatars and signatures if necessary. Unless you want that to happen, I suggest that you calm down and start following the rules.

Also, I wanted to emphasize that, as Rule #11 says, "Decisions made by administrators and moderators are final. You're free to ask why a decision was made, but please don't bother arguing with it (especially if it doesn't affect you directly)." If I ever see people attacking moderators after a decision is made, I will give them warnings from now on. If you disagree with one of their decisions, deal with it PRIVATELY rather than whining about it on the forums.

If you people are going to start acting mature again, let's see it. If not, I'll take the forums right back down again. I apologize to everyone who had nothing to do with this, but sometimes it only takes a few people to ruin it for everyone.