I used to run a discussion forum for three years so I know from personal experience that no matter what the mods do, someone will complain. If they let someone like Edward John continue to post in the interest of free speech then people will complain. If they ban him then someone will complain about there not being any free speech.
Thing is, there is no universal right to free speech. Nowhere in the world allows unfettered free speech, especially not a privately owned discussion forum. The mods need to find the right balance for their particular discussion forum and this is what they have done here. Every discussion forum has different needs. Theist discussion forums need an echo chamber because they are more interested in maintaining their faith. An atheist discussion forum needs dissent to encourage debate. But if the theists isn't debating, ignoring all responses and just spamming like Edward John was, then that doesn't help encourage debate.
Trolling is quite easy to define. I can't actually remember the specific well honed definition that I used but it worked quite well. But basically it consisted of deliberate intention to provoke anger or cause offence, ignoring responses and repeating yourself without trying to further the conversation.
Thing is, there is no universal right to free speech. Nowhere in the world allows unfettered free speech, especially not a privately owned discussion forum. The mods need to find the right balance for their particular discussion forum and this is what they have done here. Every discussion forum has different needs. Theist discussion forums need an echo chamber because they are more interested in maintaining their faith. An atheist discussion forum needs dissent to encourage debate. But if the theists isn't debating, ignoring all responses and just spamming like Edward John was, then that doesn't help encourage debate.
Trolling is quite easy to define. I can't actually remember the specific well honed definition that I used but it worked quite well. But basically it consisted of deliberate intention to provoke anger or cause offence, ignoring responses and repeating yourself without trying to further the conversation.
