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@neko, I think words can hurt. A case in point was a poster who is now notably absent, and was given to gratuitous obscenity and, even worse, ad hominem attacks. I don't recall that he was banned or even de-karma'd. The case under discussion now doesn't even come close.
It seems the discussion under contention was not started by bb himself, but by a moderator who was concerned with modifying bb's behavior. Bb insisted on his authorial feedom, but to my knowledge maintained decorum. It would have fit my values better (not that that is important here) to take a live-and-let-live approach.
That he was given negative karma and even banned is a greater detriment to the community than a little aberrant text formatting. Thanks, someone, for banning the negative karma! Bb did not even know who nicked his karma, whereas if we get karma, we always understand the identity of the donor.
I think this discussion (and the other one) is about freedom of expression. Bb was criticized and became defensive. Many of us do. I, personally, am allergic to criticism and have actually left jobs where the company culture was negative in that sense.
We have a good community of interesting and compassionate people. But perhaps we failed bb in some way. He was guilty of stubbornness but stubbornness in the face of criticism is a face-saving mechanism I can perfectly understand. I am not a stranger to it. I would not be surprised if he now felt humiliated.
We are often addicted to being "right". Sometimes we like to watch a good fight as long as nobody is really hurt. But winning an argument by gagging the opponent is, well, think about it . . .
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