Hi there Rob, I agree with @simon that there are certain instances where shadowbanning could be useful on a purely functional basis. I personally don’t want to get into the deeper moral and philosophical issues of this topic, but I have seen multiple cases that are quite clear cut. It usually involves a specific person that the entire forum knows as a blatant troll, and the person has been banned on multiple occasions and keeps coming back under different usernames, and that sort of troublemaker invariably uses the TOR network. The same goes for disgruntled users that post furiously profane tirades and awful insults and even disturbing obscene images, or even specific targeted physical threats. So the sort of cases that I’m referring to are clear and unequivocal examples of users that absolutely should not be on a forum (or even free on the streets in some cases), and their online behavior violates the norms of practically all decent people in the world. Shadowbans can at least buy some time before that sort of user realizes it and creates another account.
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