Bad faith should absolutely be punished, for its own sake, and by name. But permanent bans are the dumbest thing a moderator can do. It guarantees nobody learns. It chases people to new accounts. It gives people every reason to go behind your back and tell people you’re a power-tripping bastard.
What needs tolerance is telling trolls to fuck off. Even when their actions don’t rise to whatever asinine cutoff a moderator thinks trolling is - forcing people to play nice with dishonest assholes is psychic vampirism. They fundamentally need to be taken seriously, for their bullshit to work. ‘Assume good faith or else!’ is a gift to trolls.
Bad faith should absolutely be punished, for its own sake, and by name. But permanent bans are the dumbest thing a moderator can do. It guarantees nobody learns. It chases people to new accounts. It gives people every reason to go behind your back and tell people you’re a power-tripping bastard.
What needs tolerance is telling trolls to fuck off. Even when their actions don’t rise to whatever asinine cutoff a moderator thinks trolling is - forcing people to play nice with dishonest assholes is psychic vampirism. They fundamentally need to be taken seriously, for their bullshit to work. ‘Assume good faith or else!’ is a gift to trolls.