Opinion...
I visit the forum mainly to find out about upcoming shows or music news with the occasional stuff on local things. It's strange that so much leeway and protection is given to a select few that have nothing better to do than post here all day long. Let them take their egos to one of the multitudes of other outlets like facebook, a blog, or twitter to masturbate.
There would probably be more local traffic on this site if you kept the playing field level instead of protecting someone thousands of miles away that has no real contribution to the 9:30 club/ DC area discussion.
If the Staph/Seth wanted to have a diverse forum with more people, they'd have moderators that had the same rules for everyone from the newbie to the douchebags that get their panties in a wad for having 3000 posts.
threads are usually pretty clearly titled and easy to avoid. if you don't want to read one, don't click on the link. if you are somehow required to read everything on this board (a situation that only applies to one person that i know of here), you don't have to respond to anything.
if you want more music posts and local scene related posts, make them. speaking as the only person that has to read everything here, i appreciate the variety of discussions, as long as they are carried out respectfully. the club is the common thread that brings people here, but it is not the only thing that can be discussed.
what is not appreciated is the unnecessary name calling. based on a quick forum search, you clearly have some beef with vansmack. maybe you should just not read his posts?
and maybe you should take some of your own advice, from 2003:
"hey young dude...here's some common sense. just because a person fits a stereotype doesn't make it kosher to call them a derogatory name."