Sayonara WebSleuths

I was "timed out" on WebSleuths the other day, suspended for an entire week for a quick back-and-forth with some new member. I didn't call them any names, I didn't even provoke the mild ensuing snark. There was nothing particularly nasty going on at all, but the other member must've went running to a mod anyway, as moderator "beach" handed down the sentence without any warning.

Here's what I wrote to WS via email about it:

I was goaded by someone who attacked me first, and I see much worse "insults" flung about constantly without action taken. Admin "beach" was wrong to put me on Time Out. Tonight there's an important show relating to the Long Island Serial Killer. Please undo my time out, thank you.
"PreciousDust"

And they responded:

 PreciousDust:
Your email has been forwarded to me, co-owner of Websleuths.

You were timed out for multiple infractions.  If you are attacked on our forum, you should alert the post and not respond.  Our moderators can't read each and every post on Websleuths, so we rely heavily on the alert system and our members to call such posts to our attention.

Your attacks on another member were vicious and we're not going to tolerate it.  In the future, alert the post or learn to scroll and roll.  The timeout will stand.

Sue aka SoSueMe

And then me again:

 They weren't "vicious", that's baloney. It was two or three quick posts back and forth, in which the other poster (who is not reprimanded) gave as good as he/she got. Further, the other poster started it and had provoked me. My participation was a total of two or three posts - when the other poster said "Your tone is rude, you should work on it" (he/she was wrong, I merely pointed out that he'd linked to a story that didn't support his point, and I put up a link to previous posts about the subject at hand for perusal), I responded "Your posts are ignorant, you should work on that"). So that's an infraction, yes. Then the poster said something snarky and said they hadn't had their coffee - I suggested that I didn't care if they'd had their coffee. So, yes, another infraction. Then the other poster said I was "spinning my wheels" about the case, that I must think I'm a genius, suggested that they knew who committed the murder, and that they were leaving.  I responded that they'd been looking at the case for five minutes and sarcastically suggested they tell LE about their info, and told them not to let the door him them on the way out. That's it. Vicious? Suspended for a week? A mod would typically just delete these posts, maybe give a warning. This suspension is unfair overkill and should be undone.

No response from them on that, not that I expected there to be. Today I can't even pull up the site; perhaps they've banned me for pointing out their inconsistent policies. Doesn't matter, though, as I'm not going back - it's a silly site that continually bans (or puts on extended time out)  many of the posters who actually have something interesting to say.

I'm not particularly prone to paranoia, but when I see comments on the net like this...

Through with WS. Given them too many chancesMods posing as members - oftenTargeting good posters by using mods posing as members to deliberately provoke. When the target responds, they're bannedIf WS can't find one iota of reason to ban, they simply ban anyway. No means of redress.

....I start to wonder if I'm just naive about how the world works. In any case, the excess censorship over there inhibits free exchange of viewpoints, and I'm outta there.