How to treat trolls

[Máirín Duffy]

On Tue, 2012-12-18 at 15:30 +0100, Jiri Eischmann wrote:
> I'm considering to ban him, but I don't want to do anything that would
> harm our reputation of open and censorship-free community.

I used to struggle with this myself, but over time realized that there's
a difference between censorship and stopping someone who is a repeat
harasser. E.g., at least in the US, you have a right to free speech but
you can't scream 'Fire' in a movie theater that is not on fire, that
just causes trouble and hardship for others.

You have to weigh the right this person has to cause trouble against the
right of others to peacefully function in the community who would be
driven away from the trouble he causes. The folks who would be driven
away by his behavior do have rights as well.

You should just silently ban him.

~m