I guess in his mind (perhaps theymos as well), rules that can't be enforced 100% should not be enacted at all. We should be thankful BadBear is not
President of the Galaxy. Otherwise, laws against murder, kidnapping and theft would probably all be repealed as well since people still commit those crimes despite the presence of such laws.
That's not really a fair comparison. The point he's trying to make is is no amount of restrictions will ever stop spammers or scammers. They're persitent and they'll just wait their time and bypass any restrictions we put in place and all this then does is penalise genuine users who just want to be able to contribute to the community in whatever way and having restrictions and jails is just really annoying and off putting to them.
Don't you see? I am pointing out exactly what you and BadBear are saying, i.e, if a rule cannot be strictly enforced, then such a rule should not be implemented in the first place. That's flawed reasoning. Unless we're living in Airstrip One, there's always going to be someone who's going to break or ignore a rule/law/legislation; such is human nature.
You may not realize this, but these rules (or rather, the absence of them), are an expression of the political beliefs of theymos and the old guards of the forum. Unfortunately, time and experience has demonstrated this anarchist approach does not work in a lucrative forum environment populated by anonymous, unscrupulous characters. Victim blaming can only go so far before the spotlight turns toward the stewards. Digging ones' heels too deep in might just eventually turn one into the elite dinosaur-like monoliths so many here proclaim to detest.
For the record, 'genuine users', as you termed it, do not create accounts out of the blue just to launch new coins, announce new ponzis, make loan requests or engage in character assassinations. You and I know this, and even BadBear alluded to as much. We already have restrictions for newbies now, so we're not exactly selling our souls if we introduce new, much needed ones. Drawing arbitrary invisible lines that cannot be crossed just doesn't make sense.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother getting into these exchanges. It's not as if theymos or BadBear actually gives a damn to what we're saying. They should though, because this forum's reputation is gradually deteriorating by the day. They're both young men entrusted with awesome powers. I just hope they realize making decisions from ivory towers have never worked out well, and relying only on affirmations from sycophants can be misleading.