I've had to ban a member before but they weren't exactly a popular member though. So there wasn't exactly any fallout or repercussions after that person was banned.
I can't remember banning a popular member (maybe I did?) but I do recall doing something that made members mad. I had a private forum set up for select long time members so that the owner and I could get feedback and receive complaints about the site privately and not air our dirty laundry. The members would be revolving in that the ones who became inactive were removed and the ones that joined and then became regulars were invited into the group. It wasn't an "elite" group and there were no perks.
One day I got sick of members not contributing in that forum when I asked questions about the site so I posted in there that if they didn't respond in 2 weeks saying they wanted to remain that they would be removed from the group. And then I did just that. The majority of the members were sliced and one of the really vocal members of the forum returned a few weeks later and threw and absolute fit. The remaining members in that private group weren't too happy and to this day we only have 2 left in the group. I will not be adding more. They weren't as helpful as I had hoped so the experiment wasn't a complete success.
So to answer, I've banned a member from a group on the forum and he chose to leave the site entirely and has never returned. The other members who were unhappy aren't as active as they used to be but that's okay because it's their choice. I set a boundary and followed through on the consequences without regret.
Yes. I've been on a few forums where popular members were banned by staff. But the bans were never permanent and therefore there were never any major repercussions on the forum itself that I know of.
Mine's only been running a year & I haven't had to ban a popular member. Only ones I've had to ban were spammers who were making their rounds on other forums.
