For those who are lost, this is the post that sparked it all.
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I write this in response to priss’s call to ban another ping.sg user(ShadowFox) from the community but I’d like to address a more fundamental question of, “Is banning another user from a community a proper solution?”

Before I begin, I’d like to say that I too, like priss, was seething with anger when I read this because I feel that the article he wrote was a shallow yet inflammatory piece that only serves to divide people. His use of derogatory terms also only serves to inflame. In fact, his entire blog seems bent on finding differences between people and subsequently strengthening the divide.

But is banning the way to go? I don’t think so.

The truth is, people like him will always find another avenue to spread his ideology. And the act of banning someone will, in my opinion, somehow make him more attractive…it’ll bring him even more attention. You know how when a government decides to ban a movie from being screened, half the nation would be even more inclined to find it online just to see what the ruckuss is about?

Sure. It protects the dignity and the experience of the community for a while, but it’s not a sustainable solution. A better way, I feel, is for the community to have an open dialogue – for as many people as possible to talk about it. To confront it. To sling different opinions at each other and then become a more mature community(online or not) as result from that.

Relegating extremism into the darkness does not destroy it. Shedding light on it has better chance of doing that.

Note:
Is there a situation that calls for a ban? Yes. When someone threatens to affect the operations of the community. Things like severely pong cheating. Or turning ping.sg into a commercial blog aggregator(which isn’t its intent). Hacking it to bring it down. Yes. Especially if it directly affects the ability to enjoy the site experience(without giving other users a choice). That’s a right only the developers behind the site have(and even then, they do so at the mercy of the users..haha ).