Reply #45: You would for certain get your posts deleted

[Anarcho-Socialist]

Getting banned? That would harsh for an ad hom, unless you were going to town with ad homs, then maybe. Ad homs are often dished out on DU in debate, although in most cases there isn't a ban. The meaning of an insult and what it implies can also provide context. Calling someone an "asshole" will likely lead to a deleted message, but calling someone e.g. "a Jew lover" will likely lead to a banning as well (I remember coming across such a case in LBN last year). As my main point was, it is difficult to obtain equivalence in how to deal with breaking the messageboard rules, and human judgment will distinguish the severity and disruption between different instances, and how to differ the appropriate course of action.