Also relevant here: A “Legendary” whom everybody seems to know is impressive to newbies, casual readers, and people who don’t even have an account. (I myself spent much time reading the archives of this forum before finally registering an account—and then abandoning it for eight months due to the spam. It took me longer than it should have to figure Quickseller for what he is, due to his account rank and apparent old-timer status.) Although Quickseller has a known history of obtaining high-ranked accounts, those must cost far more than the “evil IP” fee—and there is perforce a limited supply of them. Those can get banned, too. That ultimately leaves a potential army of “Newbie” and “Jr. Member” accounts—much less impressive for rumour-mongering purposes.
N.b. that I’m trying to weigh both sides of the proposition here. I don’t (yet) have any firm opinion of this particular issue, though I would lean toward banning mudslingers for accusations amounting to a palpable sham. No community or society of any kind can long abide the depredations of gossips and rumour-mongers. That is social poison.
(I will reply to others later. Busy now.)
Sure, raising the cost of trolling could be done. I doubt it would deter QS and some other determined assholes though. QS is enough of a sleazeball that after a few bans he would probably adjust his innuendo to glide just under the new rules. He already has a bunch of accounts so the evil fee might not even be a problem. He's known to have acquired DT accounts so might be able to get his hands on a merit source too (if he doesn't have one yet) and rank up his alt army. We are not talking about a regular shitposter here. This is something else.
I remember being somewhat perplexed by vitriol towards QS a while ago but not anymore. I've seen cockroaches that could be more valuable members of this forum than QS.