[Off-topic] FoneJunkie:
You raise a lot of interesting comparisons between here and the at&t forums. I will agree with your opening statement - my personal experience with at&t Customer Care via phone support has been nothing less than stellar. I get through quickly, and have yet to experience a rude or incompetent Customer Care rep.

Interestingly, the forums used to have the same quality of experience. The members-helping-members model is (or can be) a valid one. And it worked well with limited moderator intervention. Again, it's worth noting that in the AT&T Wireless days (pre-Cingular Wireless merger and the ensuing 'new at&t' [lower case intentional, as it's the new logo]), the AT&T mods were more than thread lockers and peace keepers. AT&T staffed the forums with mods who could assist with technical issues as well as with billing issues. The Valued Community Members forum (VCM) was utilized by the mods to communicate issues (like outages, imminent changes to the boards and/or announcements of new calling plans and features). MarkF (the main mod when I joined the forum in October 2003 actually created several 'sticky notes' with basics like contact phone numbers and other information that we, as VCMers could use to assist the customers.

In November/December 2003, ATTWS launched an upgrade to their Siebel CRM system. That upgrade turned to crap very quickly, and it was a very bad time for ATTWS' customer care. Basically, a customer had almost zero chance of getting through on the phone. If he did manage to get through, because the systems were so screwed up and underperforming, he had even less of a chance of the rep being able to do anything for him or to his account. Here, once again, the forums helped to save the day. The mod staff AND the forum faithful (primarily the VCM) were able to communicate to the other customers, provide a bit of information (as it was disseminated to us by the mod staff) and could at least explain what the problems were.

When the merger with Cingular Wireless (aka, the Cingular takeover) was announced, there was a lot of speculation and even some hand-wringing over whether or not Cingular would keep the forums at all. Obviously they did, but the direction changed. Mods were no longer involved in the business of helping customers, and became a police force. In addition to the philosophical change in the role of the forum, it was met with a huge influx of new forum participants, and the quality of the posts dropped significantly. Trolling, which under ATTWS was minimal, became rampant. Frustrated customers began voicing their anger and frustration, and they, too, were often labeled 'trolls'. In reality, they were just overwhelmed, confused and looking for help.

Since the mods were no longer in the business of trying to help the customers, the entire communication system from them to the VCM broke down. No longer were explanations given, nor was there any attempt to provide any value, save keeping order. The customers were frustrated, the VCMers became frustrated and the place went to hell in a handbasket. More and more reps began posting on the forum (incognito, as it was officially verboten to say "I'm a rep" on the forums). In an attempt to keep the trivial stuff out of the forums proper, the Lounge forum was created. Since forum rank and (until very recently) ultimately membership in the VCM forum was based in part on post count, people with very limited helpful posting were being promoted and eventually made it into the VCM forum. It didn't really matter that much, though because with the lack of active participation of the mod staff and the end of the flow of any information from the corporate structure, through the mod staff to the VCMers, the VCM forum itself became a lounge-like environment.

Some attempts were made to try to appease those of us who were really concerned about the state of the forum in general, including the creation of the Community Leader (CL) status. That got the selected members the letters CL pre-pended on to their rank (I Am a Cell Phone became CL-I Am a Cell Phone) and they were given either a silver or bronze star icon added as well. So now they had the all-but-worthless Valued Community Member (VCM) AND the Community Leader (CL). And nothing else changed. Mods still locked threads, banned users and did housekeeping chores.

At this time the main mod was G8Keeper. He tried to work with the VCMers, the mods from Lithium (the forum software developer) as well as with the corporate wonks to save the forums. Rather than just lock threads and ban users, G8keeper tried to work with everyone he could to effect the kind of changes that were necessary to keep the boards going in the right direction. Unfortunately, he had to leave his job with Cingular/the new at&t due to some health issues within his family. At that point, the main mod mantle fell upon Sentry.

To say that Sentry had a rough bedside manner would be an understatement. As has been reported throughout this thread, nearly every action that he takes is seen as a power grab. His actions (banning, etc) are arbitrary and capricious. He has his favorites (who, as we have seen, are loyal apologists for his actions and those of WirelessForeman and the other at&t mods), and has made no attempt to hide that fact.

I contend that it is Sentry's actions (and those of WF) that will ultimately be the undoing of the at&t forums unless the management steps in and sorts this mess out. The reputation of at&t Mobility is being tarnished by these two mod goons, and unless they recognize it and act to stop it, the forums will continue to crash and burn until they are beyond salvage.