@Astro-What said in Discouragement and user discipline:
In all that time, I've only used this function a few times.
If you are talking about people with a problematic mentality who are involved in stalking, then I don't see any other ways except for legal methods of influence and permanent blocking. Shadow ban is the path to hell. Today you enabled it for a stalker, and tomorrow a user will appear who simply says inconvenient things or surpasses you or one of the moderators in a dispute and someone will use it again.
I had similar cases too. Not so much to worry about. You just need to strictly follow your own rules, especially if it is clear that the user is problematic. And sometimes it even helps to unite the community, especially when everyone sees that the moderation is adequate, and the user is clearly doing something destructive. If the problematic user directly points out problems that really exist but are perhaps not visible to the admin or he does not understand it, then I will never ban even such a problematic user because he helps me find problems, even at the cost of some of my or my moderators' discontent.
@julian said in Discouragement and user discipline:
@Kosiak shadow bans ought to be reserved for spammers.
@DownPW said in Discouragement and user discipline:
You will see when spammers and trolls
spammers are not trolls. A spam bot should be blocked, preferably before its post is seen by an administrator. There is no reason to shadowban a spam bot. Only algorithms for rejecting their messages and a permanent ban. Spam protection is something that should be done automatically because there is also automation on the opposite side.