On Fri, 22 Nov 2002, Jimmy Wales wrote:
Well, it was a good point, so I'm glad you sent it to the list.
Banning is a "necessary evil" in the short run. And quite possibly in the long run, although I'm optimistic about alternatives.
It's an evil because of the dangers of the slippery slope.
The dangers involved in the *current* context are highly overrated and much too much worried about--since *yer the man* who does the banning in these cases!
I can understand of course that you want to openly admit the dangers of a slippery slope; this is because you rightly want people to know that it's extremely important that the power not be abused.
But as a matter of fact, we--the vast majority of us--do trust you, and those of us who do not either don't know you, or wouldn't trust *anyone* with the power (most likely on purely ideological grounds).
Larry