You were not unbanned because you did not write an essay. It was a simple requirement, and one that I think might have been enlightening. However, as I asked on IRC in the middle of the night if I should show mercy and there was one vote for yes, I will remove your ban. The penalty still stands, of course, and your essay is required. However, I will provide it on your behalf. I make no promises someone else will not ban you again, but you are unbanned. Please, don't make me regret this.
The Rights of an Online Community
The question What are the rights of an online community has a very simple answer. Specifically, there are no rights excepting those enforced by the government of the webserver's location. The host of a community can kick, ban, mute or perform other punitive actions on those within the community at will. The issue with this is that without rights, a community is prone to being abused by both those with power and those within the community, and they will then exercise their ability to leave.
For this reason, the owners of most communities choose to bestow upon their membership certain rights. On a forum this may come as the right to not see obscene things, or the right to not be banned without reason. In a game, this generally takes the form of the right to not play with cheaters and the right to not have their account messed with by cruel administrators. These rights are not inherent, but gifted, in order to create a feeling of safety that convinces people to stay within the community and allows them to enjoy their time.
These rights, however, come with additional limitations. The right to not see obscene things can only be granted by either separating out obscenity to a specific part of the forum, or removing it entirely. This removes the ability to post obscenity from the users, and can lead to them being banned for breaking what has become a rule. These rules are not intended to limit rights but grant them, though to the minds of some they can instead be seen as limitations.
These rules are the basis of rights, without them there are no rights to maintain the existence of the community. With most rules users may infer additional rights, for example, a rule that players of a first person shooter who kill their own team will be banned is generally seen to imply that those who don't kill their own team will not be banned. However, this may or not be true, and is dependent upon the character of the administration.
Underlying all these possible rules is the one true right of an online community: the right to use the community for its intended purpose. In the case of entertainment forums or games, this manifests as the right to have a fun time. However, this right is not an individual right, but a community right. Those who infringe on the enjoyment of the majority of the users in order to have fun themselves will generally not be treated as members of the community and are generally removed, not in violation of the right of fun but in support of it. The specific rules that are put forward by an administration of a community are generally intended to support this rule.
This right is supported by two chief pillars. The first is the right of the user to leave. This is practiced often, and threatened even more. Games are often quit in rages by those who swiftly return when their rage subsides. The second pillar is the right of the administration to force users to leave. The dreaded ban-hammer, this is to be used sparingly, in support of the rules they have created, lest the enjoyment of the users is threatened by fear. However, when used rightly, the dreaded banhammer does not abrogate the rights of the community, but rather fulfill their demands.
