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> Absolutely don't tolerate abuse and set out your stall early on but I don't think the response is to fire the first volley, but to shutdown an abuser quickly.

Well, by "abuse the crap out of abusers" I certainly didn't mean you should "fire the first volley". You can't know that someone is an abuser before they have fired the first volley. Then you fire the second one, to shut them down.

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No, I think bobdvb has a point, and mostly where I think I'm going with this is that abusers should just be shut down. In the context of FOSS, I think that means some combination of a) don't tolerate their attacks and b) shut them out. Whatever that might look like, basically it just deprives them of using your project as a platform to satisfy their perverse interests in making someone feel miserable.

So, I'd rather not frame it as "abuse the abusers," because I think that risks escalating the situation.

Five years ago I may have agreed with you, but a lot has changed in my life to recognize that it's just not worth the time trying to engage someone who enjoys being mean.

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