I don't think censorship actually hurts reputation very much, certainly not enough to make up for the degree to which meta blather hurts community.

Censorship of offtopic and idiots is very much appreciated and not usually regarded as the squicky kind of censorship, except on places like r/anarchism, which I wouldn't worry about.

As always, I encourage you to do more public executions. (keyword "public". The masses must know that there is a benevolent moderator delivering them from evil trolls).

Banning all meta discussion on LW of any kind seems like an increasingly good idea - in terms of it being healthy for the community, or rather, meta of any kind being unhealthy.

+1. Even those of us who participate in meta discussions don't necessarily appreciate their existence. Start with this thread.