Truth be told not all forums have the set up where you an appeal to higher courts. City of Gamers was set up with a rotating Tri of moderators in "final decision" type set-up. Every six months new ones are elected by the Council of Heroes, and one is elected Chairman of that group. Then there's bishop.
We all think of him as the boss, but he's told us time and again that the forums are in our hands, and we do our best to live up to his expectations. It's god set-up and creates a unique environment that stands out amongst other forums.
Different forums though are going to have different policies. This one as set up with the mantra "By the Gamers, For the Gamers". Which is true. Every moderator here is a devoted player to one or more TCGs. Since they care about the game and the gaming community, there has to be a certain level of mutual respect and desire to spread accurate knowledge.
I've lurked around TCGPlayer and posted in their rules board before. What I see there is not entirely different from what I see on many other forums. I'm not saying anything bad about TCG, since I would have to say the same thing about a hundred other Yu-Gi-Oh! relate websites across the web. It's really common place and part of the attitude that goes with interacting with people on the internet. Common courtesy goes out the window when you know the other person can't sock you in the jaw.
CoG was set up with the prospect of having a place where people could get along and not be afraid to ask a question, post on opinion and interact with knowledgeable people on a daily basis, without fear of being insulted or flamed. This why we come down harder on people when their posts become overly aggressive or use terminology that is less then respectful. It's a tricky thing to do since everyone has there own writing style and inserts inflection where it may not be evident in their posts to the rest of us. But for the most part I think we've managed to keep things under control.
There's not a lot you can do about the attitude of entire community, when this is the attitude set up by the forum administrators. If the people in charge are rude to you and appealing does no good, then there's not a lot you can do about it EXCEPT not sink to their level. TCGPlayer is, for better or worse, an extremely large community and governed by principles that are not uncommon across the web.
Do I think we are better then then TCGPlayer? Well, I think we're the greatest TCG site on the internet, so it wouldn't be fair for me to single them out. Do I find the behavior you describe there unusual? Not at all.
