I’m reminded of a related point here around banning people. When you ban a person, you do not just have the consequence of:
That person is no longer around
You discourage the kinds of behavior they engaged in
You also:
Sadden everyone who overall valued that person, and alienate them somewhat
Make anyone who thinks their own behavior resembles the bans person behavior (even if you the banner, think they’re different) feel more afraid
Upset the people who particularly cared about what the banned person represented, and make them feel the site doesn’t value what they value (even if you think you do, banning an exemplar is scary).
(Which isn’t to say these aren’t mirrored for not banning someone. That also alienates people who think the potentially banned behavior is bad for them, people who think that’s not acceptable in general, etc.
All this to say, let’s say there’s some behavior that’s valuable in moderation, e.g. “being Socratic and poking a bit in a way that’s a bit uncomfortable” but is bad if you have too much of it. There’s a cost to banning the person who does it too much in that it discourages and threatens many of the people who were doing it a good amount. I think that ought to factor into moderation decisions.
I’m reminded of a related point here around banning people. When you ban a person, you do not just have the consequence of:
That person is no longer around
You discourage the kinds of behavior they engaged in
You also:
Sadden everyone who overall valued that person, and alienate them somewhat
Make anyone who thinks their own behavior resembles the bans person behavior (even if you the banner, think they’re different) feel more afraid
Upset the people who particularly cared about what the banned person represented, and make them feel the site doesn’t value what they value (even if you think you do, banning an exemplar is scary).
(Which isn’t to say these aren’t mirrored for not banning someone. That also alienates people who think the potentially banned behavior is bad for them, people who think that’s not acceptable in general, etc.
All this to say, let’s say there’s some behavior that’s valuable in moderation, e.g. “being Socratic and poking a bit in a way that’s a bit uncomfortable” but is bad if you have too much of it. There’s a cost to banning the person who does it too much in that it discourages and threatens many of the people who were doing it a good amount. I think that ought to factor into moderation decisions.