Greetings!

Agreed. I really do not think there is anything to be gained by banning him, as long as he agrees not to run the bot against the forums again. I think the issue has moved from the bot itself. In fact, there might be something useful the bot can do - in the Off Topic forum, create a random generated oracle, where people with the time and desire can post questions and have them answered in a humorous random way.

As to the metaphors and attitudes, I think it is a little out of hand at the moment.

I do not think any damage was done, nor did anything really get out of hand. yz33d did irritate a lot of people, but was it because of the bot, or because of his opinions / attitude?

I also think that it is not possible to ban him technically without injuring other users. The IP block that he is coming from is registered as a large broadband ISP (BellSouth). Blocking the small range that was already set up will not be enough, because it does not cover their entire DHCP range. Also, blocking that range may impact other BBS users in that region. Plus, at best, it is a hollow threat. Someone who really wanted to would re-route the traffic or come in from another ISP. Given that this is a privately run board located in a publicly accessible area, there is no truely effective way to block a user that specifically wants to get back in. I don't have that much experience with BBS software, so please correct me if I am wrong.

I agree with thinfourth2 in that the incident should be closed. I know yz33d does not see any problem with what he did - I hope he understands that it annoyed a lot of people and will not repeat it for that reason, if for no other.