If you label people you're always wrong.
No one fits a label, well enough to be defined by the label. No one is really a 'troll', some people have trolled in the past intentionally and unintentionally, and it seems for some that those past discretions apparently warrant indefinite chastisement. The 'victim' label is just as harmful. I've nearly never seen someone truely fit the label of 'victim' here... with the possible exception of fang who constantly seems to be sniped for no apparent reason by many many people (even me
)... well, there is reasons, just he's generally undeserving anyways.
Sometimes we ban trolls, sometimes we talk down ignorant/arrogant 'victims' it depends on the context and who is out of line. All the time I see "Oh, someone critiqued my content and I didn't like way they said something so instead of clarifying or explaining I'm just going to say "fuck you!", SAVE ME MODERATOR!"
I'm sick of it. Stop being linear minded, you're not the only person who posts here. People who you disagree with and have disputes with are not universally "trolls" just because you don't like them, and vice versa, you are not a "victim" just because you say you are. Those are labels, they are always wrong, and they aren't going to be treated with any respect from moderation. We take on every event case by case evaluating it as broadly as we can and judging as fairly as we can. We won't always be right, but we'd be wrong alot more often if we started boxing people into labeled groups.
At the end of the day, keep in mind, who we ban and why is private information generally speaking, we aren't obligated to make our actions visible, so you won't always see what we are doing as moderators. Don't assume no action has taken place if you've issued a complaint. If you really care about follow up, ask, within a private context most moderators might ceed information they wouldn't be willing to post publicly. There will always be drama, there will always be conflicts between people, we're all humans here and moderation strives to treat us as such, so just because someone gets in a fight or crosses a line doesn't mean they will be removed permanently so you don't have to tolerate/interact with them later, nor does it mean that they next time around you aren't wrong and they aren't right. At the end of the day we are little more than catalysts, and for all our social engineering and attempts to guide things the way we want them, YOU are the community, and therefore the community is YOUR responsibility.
