The traditional guidance for up/downvotes has been "upvote what you would like want to see more of, downvote what you would like to see less of". If this is how votes are interpreted, then heavy downvotes imply "the forum's users would on average prefer to see less content of this kind".

You're using quotes but I am not sure what you're quoting, do you just mean to emphasize/offset those clauses?

but people also have the right to choose who they want to spend their time with,

Sure, that might be part of the reason curi hadn't been active on LW for 13 days at the time of the ban.

(continued)

even if someone who they preferred not to spend time with viewed that as being punished.

I don't know if curi think's it's punishment. I think it's punishment, and I think most ppl would agree that 'A ban' would be an answer to the question (in online forum contexts, generally) 'What is an appropriate punishment?' That would mean a ban is a punishment.

LW mods can do what they want; in essence it's their site. I'm arguing:

1. it's unnecessary
2. it was done improperly
3. it reflects badly on LW and creates a hostile culture to opposing ideas
4. (3) is antithetical to the opening lines of the LessWrong FAQ (which I quote below). Note: I'm introducing this argument in this post, I didn't mention it originally.
5. significant parts of habryka's post were factually incorrect. It was noted, btw, in FI that a) habryka's comments were libel, and b) that curi's reaction--quoted below--is mild and undercuts habryka's claim.

curi wrote (in his post on the LW ban)

Those three things in combination, a propensity for long unproductive discussions, a history of threats against people who engage with him, and being the historically most downvoted account in LessWrong history, make me overall think it's better for curi to find other places as potential discussion venues.

I didn’t threaten anyone. I’m guessing it was a careless wording. I think habryka should retract or clarify it. Above habryka used “attack[]” as a synonym for criticize. I don’t like that but it’s pretty standard language. But I don’t think using “threat[en]” as a synonym for criticize is reasonable.

“threaten” has meanings like “state one's intention to take hostile action against someone in retribution for something done or not done” and “express one's intention to harm or kill“ (New Oxford Dictionary). This is the one thing in the post that I strongly object to.

from the FI discussion:

JustinCEO: i think curi's response to this libel is written in a super mild way

JustinCEO: which notably contrasts with being the sort of person who would have "a history of threats against people who engage with him" in the first place

LessWrong FAQ (original emphasis)

LessWrong is a community dedicated to improving our reasoning and decision-making. We seek to hold true beliefs and to be effective at accomplishing our goals. More generally, we want to develop and practice the art of human rationality.

To that end, LessWrong is a place to 1) develop and train rationality, and 2) apply one’s rationality to real-world problems.

I don't think the things people have described (in this thread) as seemly important parts of LW are at all reflected by this quote, rather, they contradict it.