>>9369
>I don't think there's value in welcoming everyone in general. If one person is near-universally disliked because they don't act respectfully, then acting otherwise is just catering that serves nobody.

There is value especially in welcoming everyone, because there is a huge step between welcoming everyone and turning away the first person. It changes a place from something open and inclusive to something exclusive where someone has the power to choose who gets in. That power is bound to be abused eventually, no matter how many good intentions the person has. After you use it once to get rid of someone, how can we justify not getting rid of everyone who even slightly annoys you?

That one person that we're kicking out has value, just like any other person. This person is not just an avatar on a website, but has actual feelings and contributions to make. No matter how terrible they are, we're still talking about a person with fundamental value. At very least, as long as this person remains, the rest of us know that we're a little bit more secure due to not being the worst person on the site. Once people start getting kicked off, it's only time until you're no longer far enough into the in-group to be safe. It can be a tricky skill to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes, so it's good to keep in practice. Always remember, what happens to them can happen to you.

Certainly people on the internet can be tremendously annoying, but it's better to live free and deal with annoying people than to live in fear. Trolls and internet racists and their like can be terrible in their way, but ultimately they can't do any real harm. It's just words on a screen that you can choose not to read. The real harm can only come from the people with power over you, like the moderators with the power to ban and to threaten people with banning. That risks kicking you out of a community that you've come to enjoy, and that's far more real. If the trolls seem bad now, imagine them having moderator powers and then perhaps we can comprehend what real badness is.

Having power over people is a terrible thing. That first step should not be taken lightly, and if there is a place that doesn't take that first step then we should treasure it and put up with enormous amounts of annoyance from trolls and jerks and whatever. People behaving badly is the beautiful music of freedom and we should love it, even if we do sometimes want to beg them to stop. Hate the trolls for being horrible, but love the site that lets them do it, if you're lucky enough to find one.