Seems like moderating in extremes. Either anything goes, or permabans with little or no warning. There are people on this forum who deserve bans far more than Dan imho. People posting ****, harassing as many people as possible, avatars that are against forum rules, etc. Breaking rules has become a joke around here, literally... just look at all the 'can I post ******' threads and the subsequent replies. The site owner altering the standard when it comes to moderating rules, because it was personal against him, doesn't seem reasonable.
I think Dan was pushing the limits in some ways by saying what he was about the forum's owner, but I also think if a ban is gonna be passed out for this, other rules should be more rigidly held to as well. And in most cases, a harassment situation should be addressed with a warning to start, as there is no clear cut description of what is or is not harassment.