I feel that a moderator at a major message board in our industry should have certain "standards" to meet. Something like that sounds dumb and lines usually aren't crossed, but in this case that's what people feel.
Nicky made his brand on bashing all the gurus in the industry and "keeping it real". He was perceived to stand up against all the bullshit, look at it, laugh, and then go back to banking on his own campaigns. This is where is "injustice" as a moderator begins...he's a big poser. Building an extremely simple tool and charging $50/month for it and trying to say he's trying to help the industry with it...is just retarded. The only person he's trying to help is himself.
Secondly, the actual premise for these mod-removal accusations comes from the IP harvesting. Not really a big deal or illegal to do, but he's a mod and was supposed to stand for something as a brand. Taking IP info from his "peers" and then selling it back to them is just fucked.
So now we have a poser who is taking our data and putting it into his tool that he's trying to sell, which goes against everything he once stood for. Should he be the one moderating us?
That's why people want to see him removed as a mod, I think.