Misuse of the OTBC function. It's supposed to be used to eradicate spammers. These days it's being used to deal with just about anything a trigger-happy mod or deputy doesn't like the look of.
One off joke accounts have been a feature of this forum since the very beginning. Sure, they're against the rules, but they're hardly "making mods lives difficult". They're just a bit of light-hearted fun. It's quite sufficient to ban the offending account without abusing the OTBC and creating problems for several other people who might share the same IP address at the same time.
But it isn't really the mods who are the problem here. It's the dozens of trigger happy deputies who fire away at anything they don't fancy, regardless of whether it's someone selling kitchens from Taiwan, someone having a bit of a laugh or someone who can't phrase his questions in perfect English.
People are way too keen to flex their muscles with the OTBC - not entirely unpredictably! - and it takes away from the wonderful diversity and moderate lunacy that used to make EF so entertaining.
Has anyone noticed that some threads just disappear? With no notification or reason that a thread you have commented on has been deleted!
I've noticed it several times before, and today I noticed that a fairly amusing thread (the one by the guy who wanted first date location advice to ensure he got laid) had disappeared.... it's always the entertaining ones that disappear.
I was replying to one of Djackson's questions and when I submitted, all of his posts suddenly disappeared! Any explanation?