Unmuting the Muted

In Rob Kalin's most recent installment of answers to questions upon his return to the CEO position at Etsy (which is done interview style) Answering your questions, #4 , he stated "Any Etsy member who is currently forum muted will have this restriction removed.".  This is one of several points made that has caused a lot of reaction in the forums.  Being one of the permanently muted, I did find his comment rather interesting as well as the opposition to it voiced in the forums.

I will admit that I only know of 3 (including myself) who were perma-muted, the other two being 1. an associate of a competitive selling venue and 2. an outspoken buyer who likes cats.  Oh wait, there is one more, another vocal buyer turned seller (on another venue).  Ok, so 4 I know of, including myself.  There must be a faction of others that I am not aware of, that did unspeakably evil acts for the opposition expressed in this thread.  You'd think that Rob announced that resellers were going to be welcomed back complete with a ticker-tape parade and guaranteed front page exposure for all the animosity expressed in that thread.

I'm guessing that those who are allowed back into the forums will not be given a free pass to wreak havoc and their return will be conditional in some way.  But maybe that's just my common sense talking.  As it stands, no one really knows the how/what/when/ and as usual speculation runs rampant and the usual suspects stir up the forums.

I guess what I am getting at is while some of you may have very valid reasons for fearing the return of some of the muted, and I mean fear, not dislike or irritation or disdain, don't paint all the mutees with the same brush.  Just as you don't want a 'blanket unmuting', I don't want to see a blanket campaign to try and get Rob to retract his statement.  Some people do deserve another chance.

And some of you, try and rise above the behavior you so despise, because you look rather silly denigrating others when you are trying to prevent those who you accuse of doing just that, from returning to the forums.

Just sayin'.