I just found out that a new website feature was implemented 2 days ago. If a comment is voted to -4 or below, it and all replies and downstream comments from it will be hidden from Recent Comments, and further replies in that subthread will incur 5 karma points penalty. The hiding, but not karma penalty, applies retroactively to comments in that subthread posted before the -4 vote.
This seems to be worth a discussion post since most people are probably still voting things to below -3 without knowing the new consequences of doing so.
This may be a stupid question, but... why do you want to avoid "punishment" (in the technical sense you reference here)?
My tentative understanding is that "labeling something and calling it undesirable" is only one form of "punishment" that fits wedrifid's definition, and that if I ignore his milder punishments, he may escalate to more severe forms. (I started putting an example of what I think may be one of his more severe forms of punishment, but removed it in case he considers it to be either quoting out of context or mind-reading.)
My expectation is that in most cases when I'm punished I will consider myself innocent but also have some doubt (e.g., perhaps I am biased about my self-assessment or just missing something obvious). I may be tempted to defend myself or ask wedrid to explain his reasons, which may cause more discussions that others consider unproductive, as well as frustration to myself if I fail to resolve the doubt.
I just found out that a new website feature was implemented 2 days ago. If a comment is voted to -4 or below, it and all replies and downstream comments from it will be hidden from Recent Comments, and further replies in that subthread will incur 5 karma points penalty. The hiding, but not karma penalty, applies retroactively to comments in that subthread posted before the -4 vote.
This seems to be worth a discussion post since most people are probably still voting things to below -3 without knowing the new consequences of doing so.