I agree with you, and I also agree with Eliezer, and therefore I don’t think you’re contradicting him. The catch is here:
they act as a near invulnerable bulwark against party crashers
This implies that the party crashers, upon seeing that everyone else is acting polite and courteous, will begin acting polite and courteous too. In a closer model of an internet community, what happens is that they act rough and rowdy … and then the host kicks them out. Hence, moderators.
Unless you really mean that the social norms themselves are sufficient to ward off people who made the community less fun, in which case your experience on the internet is very different from mine.
If everyone is accustomed to a norm of politeness, a wandering troll seeking to stir up arguments ‘for the lulz’ will find few bitter arguments, and no willing collaborators.
Still, if a few impolite people happen to come at the same time, start arguing with each other, and persist long enough to attract more impolite people from outside, the community is ruined.
Also the norm violators do not need to be consistent. For example they may be polite most of the time towards most members of community, but impolite towards a few selected ‘enemies’. If the rest of community does not punish them for this, then their ‘enemies’ may decide to leave.
I agree with you, and I also agree with Eliezer, and therefore I don’t think you’re contradicting him. The catch is here:
This implies that the party crashers, upon seeing that everyone else is acting polite and courteous, will begin acting polite and courteous too. In a closer model of an internet community, what happens is that they act rough and rowdy … and then the host kicks them out. Hence, moderators.
Unless you really mean that the social norms themselves are sufficient to ward off people who made the community less fun, in which case your experience on the internet is very different from mine.
If everyone is accustomed to a norm of politeness, a wandering troll seeking to stir up arguments ‘for the lulz’ will find few bitter arguments, and no willing collaborators.
Still, if a few impolite people happen to come at the same time, start arguing with each other, and persist long enough to attract more impolite people from outside, the community is ruined.
Also the norm violators do not need to be consistent. For example they may be polite most of the time towards most members of community, but impolite towards a few selected ‘enemies’. If the rest of community does not punish them for this, then their ‘enemies’ may decide to leave.