A community offers few punishments for asocial behavior. Killfiles are partly effective. But the strongest punishment is banishment.

The "community" didn't decide anything. John Gilmore did. His machine, his mailing list, his decision, and his responsibility.

The issue is "do we individually banish asocial louts or collectively?" and of course how do we decide who to banish.

Collectively => ban for people who don't want to ban the person.

All of this is certainly easier when done individually yet it is often prudent and effective to have someone take action when they are in a position to do be effective. Gilmore acted properly in my opinion. And DV remains in my killfile.

If you still need a killfile, Gilmore wasn't very effective, was he?