back when we started this show, the whole "user-driven-gamified-community" thing was hot stuff
And there was all this breathless talk about a new age of equality and brotherhood on the 'Net
But the problem folks weren't really thinking about was... What happens if someone tries to use these systems for something that's... Not all shiny and happy?
Well... Of course, some people were thinking about that, because this wasn't their first rodeo
Message boards, USENET, BBSs and various primordial "online communities" that predate even the personal computer had existed and had faced precisely those problems
And what they found was the same thing that countless meatspace commune organizers, union organizers, politicians, kings and chieftains had know since humanity first started organizing into groups: when you throw a bunch of people into one space, pretty soon they try to eviscerate each other.
So you gotta plan for that up front. You can't look at a group of people as though they were mostly angels with a few devils thrown in... They're all evil disgusting creatures, including the one doing the looking.
You gotta give 'em goals to work toward, and boundaries to respect, and stories to tell about why those goals and boundaries exist.
And when someone protests, you shun 'em. They don't get to be a part of the group anymore - not by edict, but by virtue of nobody interacting with them.
So how do you assume good intentions in light of this... admittedly cynical PoV?
Simple: you don't. You allow for good intentions. When those good intentions result in good actions - which are defined as actions that are in keeping with the norms of the group - then everything is copacetic.
When they don't... Back to shunning.
Which, recall, is enforced by every other member of the group
You can give folks as many chances to demonstrate good intentions as the community will tolerate, but you don't ever give anyone a pass: if they cross a line, they're out until y'all decide to give 'em another chance.
This is what lets stuff like suspensions work. It's trivial to create a new account and come back, but then you have to pretend to be a different person.
If you want to come back as who you were... You have to accept that you crossed a line and stop doing that. Else you're back out.
The actual suspension - the moderator sending a message, the 1-rep, etc. - that's just a ritual to communicate to the person and everyone else that they're shunned.