From the first page of the thread, I expressed to other moderators that in light of the circumstances--people in the thread are upset--we should give people a bit of slack. So when there were literally hundreds of posts yelling that Polygon made a mistake for 30 seconds on a Sunday night (most pretty disgusting, vicious, and personal), I just deleted them. Then when there were hundreds of posts yelling that Pachter's tweet reaction "made the grieving all about himself" (many, again, disgusting, vicious, and personal), I just deleted them. Then when there were hundreds of posts asking about the banner (several pretty rude), we just deleted them after EviLore made a comment with his thoughts about the issue. I did not think it was appropriate to make an emotionally volatile thread into a place where people were getting banned for acting up.
And then I wake up this morning and there are dozens more posts, increasingly rudely berating "GAF" and, even worse, GAF's moderators (who have absolutely nothing to do with the site's design or operation), for not grieving properly? This is not acceptable, and it's why those responsible were banned overnight. No one is happy to have to ban people in this thread. I would not be happy to ban someone in this thread.
Everyone grieves differently. You have a license to do any number of things. Some of the tributes in this thread seem very heartfelt and touching, others hilarious, and others frankly tacky to me. But that's a part of how people process things, which is why this is not a catty zone for arguments and people calling each other out. We've moderated these thread by keeping it free of judgment and clear for everyone to process things the way they'd like to, without fighting over whether a given response is appropriate. So expecting the same level of decency in response isn't too much to ask.
I don't think it would impress anyone to have to change the thread title to remind people that yelling about GAF's site banner (or turning it into a contest of "which is more important") is not appropriate. I especially don't think it would impress anyone to turn a thread that could be a shining example of GAF's community and dedication to the industry into a locked ban graveyard. I don't think that'd reflect well on GAF or Nintendo fans. Please, do us a favour: do not use this as a thread to complain about how you perceive others are grieving. Also, if you see someone posting something that's obviously going to be deleted, don't reply to the them to explain anything or argue with them. Just let us zap it and move on. If you reply to them, it means more work for us, and it reflects worse on the thread's ability to remain focused and supportive.
(Edit: Also, there is no need to quote this post or make this thread about this reply. For 99% of you, nothing in this reply applies and there's no need to do anything different!)