I think unwritten rules of etiquette probably are punishable, in the sense that “don’t be an ass” is essentially rule zero of every site … but surely they were acting in good faith here, to discourage low-quality submissions (in however misguided a manner) as the karma system is supposed to?
I really don’t see why this can’t simply be punished going forward. Ideally, the people responsible will know to stop and no-one will ever need to be banned for it. After all, isn’t the main problem that it was driving away users?
I think unwritten rules of etiquette probably are punishable, in the sense that “don’t be an ass” is essentially rule zero of every site … but surely they were acting in good faith here, to discourage low-quality submissions (in however misguided a manner) as the karma system is supposed to?
I really don’t see why this can’t simply be punished going forward. Ideally, the people responsible will know to stop and no-one will ever need to be banned for it. After all, isn’t the main problem that it was driving away users?