You asked for transparency...

The following was written as a reply to one person, but it's worth making available to anyone who's interested:

First of all, many newer members may not even know who I am from a few pm's I have received.  I am Ron.  I started BT nearly 10 years ago from my first Oly triathlon at the Mogadore Reservoir.  I still do a sprint every year, and usually do 2 of the three sports consistently, but my time away from the site is spent mostly being with my kids in their formative years, and trying to make my marriage the best it can be. 

Marmadaddy is the site administrator and there are about 20 mods that help out.  All of them started out as users just like you.

"I appreciate you contacting us to express your concern.  I will be frank and as truthful as I can with you as you are a valuable member too. 

Banning is something that we don't take likely.  When it gets to me, it stems from a history of multiple pm's from the mods and other short-term forum timeouts.  Especially from a usually helpful poweruser such as Brian, we make sure there is plenty of warning.

In the end the rules need to be applied evenly for everyone regardless of post count or membership status or the mods lose faith in me for them to do their jobs...then nobody wants to be mods...then the site degenerates.  Sure, it's a slow process for that to happen but I am charged with the ultimate longevity of the site.

Unfortunately, users such as yourself, only see the end result...you don't see the pm's, the small timeouts, the behind the scenes stuff that ultimately caused this, usually over months and years.  It wasn't overnight. Just like if there is any chance of Bryan coming back, it won't be overnight, if at all.  A lot of bridges with the mods have been burned, our rules have been taunted time and time again.  He was actually taunting us to ban him.  That leaves a very bad taste in our mouth.  There has been no apologies.  There are always two sides to every story, ESPECIALLY on the internet.  Should superstars be above the laws?  What would you have done in our position?

To be honest, you are the only 1 in about 12 pm's that are arguing FOR Bryan.  The rest have been nothing but thanks for all we do and for this decision.  There are a LOT of people, mods aside, that Bryan put off over the years and has soured them from the forums even despite his helpful posts.  As one user expressing thanks, "I respect many of the veteran contributors, but even the most knowledgeable triathletes aren't all that useful if they can't articulate a thought without including some kind trash."  The thread basically calling another user a dumb___ for even putting up a poll on an IM tattoo was the final straw and it was by-the books with plenty of warning and opportunity to 'even ever-so-slightly' change his tenor on the forums.  We really don't ask for much. Time and time again, our main rule is to not disparage other users for their questions. No question is stupid. That is what BT is about.  We don't care how helpful other posts have been in the past and we are not disputing how helpful he has been.  If you want us to apply the rules, they have to apply evenly to everyone no matter the history, no matter how hard the decision is.

There were two other power users on the past that have expressed a desire to come back after a long hiatus...one of them told us to 'f-off' when we said it has to be by the books, the other totally changed his attitude into a different person and is a current valuable, frequent poster of the site and we have never regretted letting him back in.

Let me know if you have anymore questions on this.  I certainly would hate to lose members from this, but in reality, we have to apply our, in my opinion, easy forum rules to everyone."