hey folks -

i've received a few messages from you over the last few days regarding one of our former members, ElCapitan.

there's been all sorts of stories floating around, and i just thought i'd share some of my perspective on this situation to clear up any misconceptions.

first of all, we try to avoid sharing the specific details about a member and any interactions with customer care with you. it's a policy that we've derived as we've become more and more focused on the privacy of our members...we just don't want to get into a situation where we're providing personal details or anything that the specific member wouldn't want made public. so I apologize if I'm not sharing enough details for some of you, and I've been slow to get back (also, i'm technically on vacation, but well, it's hard to stay away from DS).

I consider ElCap to be a friend. As many of you know (because he told you), we spoke on the phone 2 or 3 times and I found him to be a smart, personable guy. The member care team at DS (and me personally) took extraordinary measures to keep him on DS, happy and a positive, contributing part of our community.

Unfortunately, Cap is no longer on DS, and I will respect his privacy and our policy and provide little further details as to the cause.

I'd like to simply say that I'm saddened that he's not on the site anymore.

For those of you who think that we have an agenda, or that we favor certain members over others, it's just not true. As I've said before, we focus all of our energies on running a safe, supportive environment for all of you, and we try to avoid interfering at all if we can help it. We take member care very seriously.

We continue to work on new product features which will allow you to have more control over whom you interact with and give you more specific tools to assist you in your personal struggles.

I hope you all are having happy holidays.