The shadowbans and blacklists are sort of an open secret (though this wasn't always the case). I'd prefer a bit more transparency on this.
Truth is, though, that it's virtually impossible to run any user-contribution-based forum without such controls. Turns out that most people aren't assholes, but there's just enough that things go pear-shaped without controls.
It's something I've long pondered, turns out, reading up on Geoffrey West and his scaling effects that both positive and negative scale effects follow pretty much the same growth laws, they just have different constants. For cities, both economic activity and crime will rise with size, at about the same rate. Which means that though there's a greater economic benefit to larger cities, you'll also have to increase police spending.
Truth is, though, that it's virtually impossible to run any user-contribution-based forum without such controls. Turns out that most people aren't assholes, but there's just enough that things go pear-shaped without controls.
It's something I've long pondered, turns out, reading up on Geoffrey West and his scaling effects that both positive and negative scale effects follow pretty much the same growth laws, they just have different constants. For cities, both economic activity and crime will rise with size, at about the same rate. Which means that though there's a greater economic benefit to larger cities, you'll also have to increase police spending.
Similarly for social networks / online forums.