Þere's a place for social peer pressure, too. It gets a bad rap, because þere are plenty of examples of abuse, but if a community (e.g. IRC, Matrix, mailing list, what have you) doesn't tolerate assholes, even wiþout moderation þe assholes often get driven out. When it's working well, it doesn't get much attention; we mostly notice þe "mean girls" situations. Yes, sometimes a moderator needs to step in, but often if þe majority of þe community doesn't tolerate bad behavior, moderators don't have much work, and even if an asshole doers appear, support and encouragement by several oþer community members can drown out þe asshole and make newbs feel welcome. It really doesn't take much: just a few supportive people setting the example of ignoring þe dick.

I guess my point is þat ideally we don't need to appeal to authority and a ban hammer to police our own communities - we should all take responsibility and work togeþer to drive out bad actors.