OK, I'll make a reader's digest version since you said you are short on time. All my info comes from public posts. I don't know of any non-pubic exchanges...
The way I see this case is that Case reported SlowThinker to SunTzu and asked him to give Slowthinker a ban, SunTzu asked Slowthinker not to post cheats, SlowThinker refused and continued to post cheats, SunTzu then gave him a ban. Correct me if this is not the case... I don't have time to read thru the threads thoroughly.
That is not what is in the threads. I cannot speak to non-public exchanges, if any... I have not asked.
However, the thread is summarized thus:
1. A player posted some cheats. Another player asked him to erase part. One cheat was left. No mod intervention or ban.
2. Thread continued for 3 more pages.
3. Slow Thinker joind thread and posted a cheat.
4. SunTzu summarily banned SlowThinker with this message:
"Slow Thinker i'm giving you a 1 week vacation for posting ways to cheat.."
5. The above was the first Mod intervention in the thread against anyone.
6. One of the Item#1 cheats was, and still is, posted. All PBEM players have indicated it is a cheat (how to change rules.txt to get advantages).
7. No opportunity to retract or edit the post was offered in the thread; the announcement of the ban was summary and without prior warning.
8. Evidently, the post had to do with using the Civ 2 menu to load and view a password protected .mp file.
BTW, I never saw the original post, as the method was already deleted by the time I went looking for Slow Thinker to find out why he was not working on our 1-month project with Nethog & the Civ 2 Summary Packet. Slow Thinker's disappeance is how I got involved, and after my short post asking into what happened was ignored, I began reading the thread, and decided to look into it out of principle for all.
Here are some posted one-line short thoughts on this issue (cut & paste):
Academia - "how do you cheat in a PBEM game?
Darius - "it's not too damaging to mention how they do it. Atop that, it would make non-cheaters know what to look for."
Case - "I really don't think that that stuff should be publicly posted in that manner"
Duke of Marbrough - "Knowing how to do it just makes it easier for someone that is borderline to actually try it."
Germanos - "'cheats' should be listed somewhere"
Slow Thinker - "You have to say: Cheating is easy, anybody could do it if he decide."
Smash - "Posting the techniques used to cheat is good. ... you are just going to have to trust at some point."
Starlifter - "the PBEM has a real mess to clean up IMHO, if ... censorship of such discussions is for real."
Winter - "Oh yes, definitly there must be equal chances for everybody!! ... everything depends on the level of trust"
SunTzu - "I don't like people posting ways to cheat, cause many people want to find out how to cheat"
JuicyCivNewbie - "you're all wrong trying to prevent people from posting methods of cheating here."
Smash - " New players need to be informed."
To keep the post shorter, I have compiled a
summary of the thread in question to enable a short read of the situation. It is atteched at the end of the post.
A little rules clarification is necessary: I have no problem at all with people posting cheats.
That one piece of information would have averted all the consternation of the PBEM people discussing the issue, and Slow Thinker would never have been banned.
Several PBEM people, with sound logic and good intentions (but bad results), did not share that view, and that is the core of what happened... some PBEM people wanted to know, and others did not want them to know. Slow Thinker then entered the thread on page 3, posted some info, and was immediately banned for 7 days, and then the issue was never clarified despite 29,000 characters of posting from me alone, not to mention the regular PBEM posters.
Anyway, let's end the debate here. There is no need to escalate this incident any further.
Actually, your statement of allowing cheats to be openly discussed and posted solves the entire dispute, I would think. All the questions I had posted are now answered except #4, which is hopefully moot from now on (about bans being applied with inequality).
PS, An overall lesson is perhaps communication: questions should be addressed when an issue is small.... this stuff began as relatively a minor issue on the 20th (well, a 7 day ban for something one mod called "good" and broke no rule is still absurd) ... ignoring things does not help. Ming had some good points in his 3-way street post that were not heeded.
EDIT: Fix links, typos.