For example, Digg is one of those.

They allow stories from Microsoft, the NFL and Major League Baseball, but ban anyone listing a story posted on small shop blogs, even if the blogs are not set up to sell anything commercially.

They have banned an entire college, Linda Christas College because their students are sposored by a group that runs such a blog.

One can run RAP, soft porn and abusive language on Digg, but let someone write an article about the history of Christmas candles posted on a blog that Digg Support believes commercial and you will be banned.

All Linda Christas College students wanted was for Digg to be fair. But, evidently that word is not in their vocabulary.

If we sound angry, we are. Our son is on scholarship, not from Microsoft or the NFL but from a small toy store in our town, ToysPeriod, which has a blog with beautiful uplifting stories, many of them written by college students.

However, post any one of them, the latest being how business innovation saved the Christmas stocking tradition, and Digg will ban you.

Hopefully the persons reading this blog will be at least intelligent when they ban folks.

Digg, a very prominent social bookmarking service, does not deserve its ranking.

We have complained to them, and, their reaction, of course, was to ban us as well.

For example, there are trolls who will not be affected by argument, and will continue to try to rile people up no matter how many times they’ve embarrassed themselves in their passive-aggressive replies. People like this are not affected by what is said to them because it is irrelevant to their purpose: to undermine your community.

However, when you face a person like this, you need to be patient. Take action when necessary, and continue to try to work with him, but don’t be discouraged in doing what’s right because he mocks you. Allow him to build up his own case against himself in his posting history. After a time, you can draft your case, and remove him. At that point, it should be obvious to most there that his removal was for the best.

Be weary of the ban button, but don’t be afraid of it. By not being quick to take such extreme action, we get a more accurate portrait of someone, and we are less likely to make mistakes. Some people may change, too. I remember one member, for instance, who was trying to get a rise out of people, but was caught off guard when I treated him as a fellow adult and with politeness when I asked him to stop.