The decision to ban smalls was by no means unanimous. Some of us opposed banning anyone, with the possible exception of Boach, since he stole the password.
In my own case, I argued -- as I told Dballer in private -- that if smalls was to be banned, it was only logical that he be banned as well. (He agreed.) The irony was that while smalls had access to the mod board, there was no evidence that she, or Boach for that matter, revealed the contents of the mod board publicly. Dballer, on the other hand, posted (on Triedia) contents of the mod board he received from a source he has not identified to Elite mods.
In both cases, the two people acted out of personal but understandable motives. There is no evidence that smalls, boach or dballer used info garnered from the mod board for anything more than they claimed. They acted out of their own moral sense.
On the other hand, for the reasons Happy Scrappy is citing, it is important that the board remain secure. But the discussion of AS and scammers is not the only reason. George Spellwin wants Elite to be an open and tolerant place. Thus the mod board is also a place where the status of membership is discussed. Because consensus needs to be reached before someone is banned or reprimanded and because people may have misinformation, it is important to be able to discuss a membership problem openly without publicly communicating misinformation -- convicting someone before there's any kind of inquiry.
I'm not sure what is served by the continuing debate over the particular bannings.
Smalls and Dballer are both entertaining, eccentric characters. Like all strong characters, they come with as many flaws as assets. Whether the tendency to break the rules when they don't seem compatible with our own needs or higher purposes is an asset or a flaw is at the heart of the disagreement here.
Anyway, I'll miss them both.