Considering that Evil Trout doesn’t have much time on his hands and the mods are doing an excellent job so far I can’t think of a reason why the mods shouldn’t ban/unban at their own discretion. If there are dissensions they or people who disagree with their decisions can still contact ET.

About thread derailing, well sometimes it’s really a shame, but often it can enliven an otherwise dead thread or its quite entertaining. Also it’s not always easy to decide who started the derailing, it’s then a slow process with several posters involved. The RP forums should be as free of restrictions as possible.