I think that Lobo may actually be one of the good guys. (I know that probably sounds mad and that I will be voted down for saying this ). I think he often stops people from saying stuff which would get them booted from the site.
My hunch would be that the guy who plays Lobo will probably not want to play the role for much longer. Perhaps I'm wrong.
I think you're probably right. Everyone I know who has actually met him seem to like him and he's big buddies with Rob Sylvan too isn't he? I've had countless site mail warnings from him but have no complaints personally. I have been surprised about some folk who have been banned though. I guess he has less patience with some than others, like most of us probably do. Yes, he has been unusually snarky at times recently but I get the impression that they're under a bit of pressure at IS nowadays. I'm sure they'd love to get back to the happy-clappy days of yesteryear but the mothership keeps pulling the rug from underneath them. Note that it wasn't an Istock manager who terminated Sean's account. I think that's very revealing about what's going on.
I think so too. And if you remember the forums way back in the day they were pretty snarky. Back when the inspectors and admins and owners of the site would all chit chat in the forums there were a lot of people who got their feelings hurt. For me lobo seems almost nostalgic of a bygone era. I personally like his snark and feel he is one of the good guys working for a company who is spreading him way too thin. I think I would be as sad the day Lobo leaves as I am sad that Sean got booted.
ETA: I have met Sean and think he is a great upstanding individual. I really dont like how they handled his departure/google deal and think they could have done a MUCH better job at making allies with Sean and contributors by being more forthcoming with information and transparency with how they deal with our files.
I also believe they are too ban happy in the forums... I just think that Lobo is the face of that and not specifically to blame.