The Boot

As a chat room moderator I sometimes have to deal with people that really do not want to chat. They would prefer to get booted, meaning they lose their chat ability. They can read but they cannot respond. I do not like to use the boot but sometimes it is inevitable.
Players get cranky and that is understandable. If things are not working properly for them they come to the lobby and either ask why or they vent their frustrations. Venting is fine so long as you don't vent too much or start to bash the site. If you are asked to stop whatever it is you are doing then you should stop and most players will. Some, however think they are above the rules and continue on and on until the mods have no choice but to give them the boot.
Last night I had to boot someone from the lobby. Spent considerable amount of time talking about how he had been on the site longer than any of those of us in the lobby, how the site should make him a premium member because of that tenure, blah, blah, blah.
Then he decided he wanted to argue with one of the mods. That is a no-no. He was warned, twice, to stop. But, on a roll, he went forward. First he got a soft boot meaning that he could log off, log back in and his chat is restored. Normally this cures players. Not this lovely guy.
Immediately upon his return he started back in, arguing about anything and everything and bashing the site. I lost my normal cool and booted him, hard. Twelve hours this time!
A short time later a friend came in and started giving the other mod hell for booting his friend, defending the one I booted. I let him know he was bitching at the wrong mod and why his friend was booted. He wanted to argue with me now. I told him that, unless he wanted to follow his friend with the boot process he should stop arguing and go play. Thankfully, he did.
When I boot someone I have to copy all the chat that led up to the booting and put it on a forum page so that the head mod can read it the next day and decide if I was right or wrong or if I should have banned the player for a longer period of time. It is time consuming and none of the mods like to do that "paperwork".
Alas, there are times when one just has no other recourse than to use The Boot.