If individuals are not allowed to decide, it’s unclear how any weeding can ever be decided upon.
Pattern A: Someone writes a stupid comment. I downvote the comment, you downvote the comment, Eugine downvotes the comment. The comment now has −3 karma, and the user lost 3 karma. If they continue writing stupid comments, their karma will drop to zero.
Pattern B: Someone writes a stupid comment, I go berserk and downvote all their 30 comments and 2 articles. The user lost 50 karma.
The difference is that in Pattern A, it was individuals making the decision, but it took more than one individual to sent a strong signal. Also, the signals were connected to comments: if the user wrote ten smart comments and ten stupid comments, they would see the difference. Thus, they can learn.
Indeed, it’s unclear if this rule would even allow you Kaj to ban Eugine!
Having more rights than an average user is pretty much the definition of a moderator.
Pattern A: Someone writes a stupid comment. I downvote the comment, you downvote the comment, Eugine downvotes the comment. The comment now has −3 karma, and the user lost 3 karma. If they continue writing stupid comments, their karma will drop to zero.
Pattern B: Someone writes a stupid comment, I go berserk and downvote all their 30 comments and 2 articles. The user lost 50 karma.
The difference is that in Pattern A, it was individuals making the decision, but it took more than one individual to sent a strong signal. Also, the signals were connected to comments: if the user wrote ten smart comments and ten stupid comments, they would see the difference. Thus, they can learn.
Having more rights than an average user is pretty much the definition of a moderator.