MOD NOTE: Miles' ban (his third or fourth one over the last year and 1/2, due to breaking the forums rules over and over) was not initially permanent (and still isn't), but has been extended due to his multiple, multiple attempts to get around the ban, and create new login after new login, creating extra works for the mods, and causing collateral damage when the IP addresses, rather than emails, had to be banned, and others who used the same IPs from the ISP suddenly had trouble accessing the forums.
I suspect he will be back some day, but mods are still determining if and when that is the case.
The ban had to do with his behavior on other threads, specifically multiple violations of rule #1. None of his ban has to do with anything on this thread--his behavior on this thread, and specifically his positive contributions to the forum and alternate viewpoints, was what has gotten him more leeway to this point (everyone else has been a three strikes and you're permabanned).
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
As a mod, when moderation is discussed publicly, it's a fine line. I'm always for questioning authority, but also it feels inappropriate/inconsiderate to talk in too much detail about his behavior, so I don't intend to post more after this on Miles' ban, but I will happily discuss over PM, and if you think the discussion should be public at that point after a PM discussion, we can do that in a more appropriate--Off Topic--thread, created for that purpose. Fair enough?
Cheers!