One Bad Apple

I'm a member of several websites and moderate on a couple of them. It's fun, and it's a fun way to meet up with people you'd otherwise never get the chance to exchange ideas with.

One of the most frustrating things to me is when someone joins a site, repeatedly violates "no flaming" rules, and repeatedly gets away with it. To my mind, allowing someone multiple second chances cheapens how it appears site administration feels about the rest of the site members. In other words, when the rules are extended for someone who's an ongoing asshat and a drain on resources, it is an insult to the site members who don't act that way and whose use of the site is negatively affected by the asshat.

If you've got someone in your life who yells at you, demeans you, calls you names, tells you you're stupid, says you're fat, and calls you ugly -- what do you do? If you are at all psychologically healthy, you cut that person out of your life. The same rules should apply online. Don't make everyone else smell the rotting apple. Throw it out.