[akoboldfrying]

Your linked comment comes across to me in much the same way as TFA: seething with bitterness kept just beneath the surface, channeled into a style that projects authority and precision.

This is pure passive aggression:

> To ease her confusion and conscience, and in the hopes of dealing with less trolling, I have banned her domain.

I then read the links in that post, and some of the comments in the Lobsters thread, including by someone now appearing as "inactive-user". I think the points inactive-user made about the distinction between bannable and benign actions being somewhat arbitrary and footgun-ish are sound. At the same time, user matklad pointed out that the subsequent behaviour of Justine's invitees (namely, posting many more articles from their own sites) was exactly what the bans were designed to prevent, which I agree with.

I do accept that a forum like Lobsters (or HN) is beset on all sides by spammers whose participation, if left unchecked, threatens their very existence. So it's unfortunately necessary to have and enforce rules, which will inevitably be imperfect.

For now I've concluded that two people on opposite sides of a really quite small argument about a grey area were looking for a fight, and that both took actions to escalate it.

[BugsJustFindMe]

> Your linked comment comes across to me in much the same way as TFA: seething with bitterness kept just beneath the surface, channeled into a style that projects authority and precision.

It reads entirely to me like someone tired of dealing with a chronic rule-abuser. That is what moderators are for. I don't see how you interpret any of that as the mod looking for a fight.