There's this thing called mobbing, where a popular person will pick on someone that isn't so popular, and a person will see that the popular person has picked on that unknown, so they will pick on them so to gain favor with the popular person. It soon grows so that others see what's happening and they want to become popular so they pile on. It's a well known social reaction. Happens a lot in the workplace to high performing introverts. Happens a lot in the online community too. So these rules you speak of, are really only guidelines, because they aren't really enforced fairly. It really depends upon who gets mad. If it get's reported to someone who resents someone standing up to authority, then they get hammered. If it gets reported to someone who appreciates independent thought, it usually passes, unless it's clearly abusive.