Most (all?) of the "ideas" on SI articulated by rude people, can be found in the media expressed in a non-personal format. There is no loss (and quite a bit of gain, in terms of peace of mind) to be had in banning people who are perpetually angry and always looking for a fight, rather than a discussion. They make an ugly mess on threads- and inevitably someone will take issue with it, rather than just ignoring it, and then whatever civil discussion was going on, is derailed. It strikes me as highly illogical to expect people who like relatively civil discussion to tolerate name calling and personal attacks, especially when aimed at them, but also just in general. Unfortunately there are many people on SI who are simply incapable of reading an argument they hate, without transferring that hate to the person who expresses the idea.
The more adult you are, the more important it becomes to discipline folks who are childlike- discipline, NOT punish- I use discipline in the sense that means "training". I hate group castigation, but I think an effective moderator quietly excluding a poster who insists on acting like a middle schooler is entirely appropriate, and a good lesson for that person. Of course there is banning on SI that is offensively used as a weapon- but why would you want to post somewhere like that, even if you could, when you know a person is aiming to attack people like that? There is also banning used to create friendly environments for chatting, and I see nothing wrong with that either- and there is no point trying to "force" yourself on someone who doesn't want to be friends with you. Although people on SI seem more than willing to complain about it (and I'm not talking about you). |
