I’m aware there are ways of causing trouble that do not involve violating any rules.
I can do it without even violating the “Don’t be a dick” rule, personally. I once caused a blog to explode by being politely insistent the blog author was wrong, and being perfectly logical and consistently helpful about it. I think observers were left dumbfounded by the whole thing. I still occasionally find references to the aftereffects of the event on relevant corners of the internet. I was asked to leave, is the short of it. And then the problem got infinitely worse—because nobody could say what exactly I had done.
A substantial percentage of the blog’s readers left and never came back. The blog author’s significant other came in at some point in the mess, and I suspect their relationship ended as a result. I would guess the author in question probably had a nervous breakdown; it wouldn’t be the first, if so.
You’re right in that rules don’t help, at all, against certain classes of people. The solution is not to do away with rules, however, but to remember they’re not a complete solution.
I’m not saying we should do away with rules. I’m saying that there needs to be leeway to handle cases outside of the (specific) rules, with more teeth behind it than “don’t do it again”.
Rules are helpful. A ruleset outlines what you’re concerned with, and a good one nudges users toward behaving in prosocial ways. But the thing to remember is that rules, in a blog or forum context, are there to keep honest people honest. They’ll never be able to deal with serious malice on their own, not without spending far more effort on writing and adjudicating them than you’ll ever be able to spend, and in the worst cases they can even be used against you.
I’m aware there are ways of causing trouble that do not involve violating any rules.
I can do it without even violating the “Don’t be a dick” rule, personally. I once caused a blog to explode by being politely insistent the blog author was wrong, and being perfectly logical and consistently helpful about it. I think observers were left dumbfounded by the whole thing. I still occasionally find references to the aftereffects of the event on relevant corners of the internet. I was asked to leave, is the short of it. And then the problem got infinitely worse—because nobody could say what exactly I had done.
A substantial percentage of the blog’s readers left and never came back. The blog author’s significant other came in at some point in the mess, and I suspect their relationship ended as a result. I would guess the author in question probably had a nervous breakdown; it wouldn’t be the first, if so.
You’re right in that rules don’t help, at all, against certain classes of people. The solution is not to do away with rules, however, but to remember they’re not a complete solution.
I’m not saying we should do away with rules. I’m saying that there needs to be leeway to handle cases outside of the (specific) rules, with more teeth behind it than “don’t do it again”.
Rules are helpful. A ruleset outlines what you’re concerned with, and a good one nudges users toward behaving in prosocial ways. But the thing to remember is that rules, in a blog or forum context, are there to keep honest people honest. They’ll never be able to deal with serious malice on their own, not without spending far more effort on writing and adjudicating them than you’ll ever be able to spend, and in the worst cases they can even be used against you.