IIRC, the default subreddits do have mods, and a lot of them at that. So there really isn't absolute freedom except in new subreddits where the population is small enough to contain would-be delinquents with downvotes. This site also has a small population and even smaller divisions, and at this point remains largely untouched by annoyances. But how can we, as a community, prepare for a future where the scum of sites like reddit come here? Mods can be used to stave off the crazies, but copying the mod system from other sites could just push it towards the same ill-fated content that we left.

I guess since this site revolves around following, anyone who would be banned can just lose their voice altogether if no one follows them. I really hope that this holds out because it already looks more promising than reddit.

I like the idea of that system, but I wonder of it would keep moderators in line. Sure, accountability would be refreshing and maybe deter some mods from waving around their power, but what's stopping them from lying about the reason? If the answer is the community, then who would monitor the banning list for innocent users? Don't get me wrong, I would love mods to be accountable for all the actions they take, and this system would be more attractive to helpful mods. But corrupt mods could bypass this system by lying, turning a simple disagreement into a ban because of "scamming". This would be a good step towards having better control over mods, but it by no means erases all the negatives.

I'm beginning to wonder if someone already has thought about this and executed it (pun not intended). I mean, the article even said that the jolt in the pacemaker would be called a malfunction. Who's to say that this hasn't already been done?