Consider also Reddit's method of spam-user-flagging. They use something that's been nicknamed "Ghost Banning" they can continue to upvote links, comment on threads everything from their point of view looks like they exist. They never get a message that says "hey by the way, you're not being counted"
They're just not counted.
Ghost banning can give you a a large number of false-positives without the same level of risk of upsetting others.
In fact, with google's version of ghost banning, they could further tie your votes to the accounts of your friends.
Google algorithmically thinks your a spammer, you're ghost-banned - except to you and except to people who have elected to count you as a friend.
It will be very hard to feel slighted if you never know that your votes don't really carry an impact.
Obviously there's work in getting this right, but it's got a good chance of being a very solid quality filter.
Comments
Consider also Reddit's method of spam-user-flagging. They use something that's been nicknamed "Ghost Banning" they can continue to upvote links, comment on threads everything from their point of view looks like they exist. They never get a message that says "hey by the way, you're not being counted"
They're just not counted.
Ghost banning can give you a a large number of false-positives without the same level of risk of upsetting others.
In fact, with google's version of ghost banning, they could further tie your votes to the accounts of your friends.
Google algorithmically thinks your a spammer, you're ghost-banned - except to you and except to people who have elected to count you as a friend.
It will be very hard to feel slighted if you never know that your votes don't really carry an impact.
Obviously there's work in getting this right, but it's got a good chance of being a very solid quality filter.
This is also known as a "hellban" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hellban
I think it's a deliciously evil solution to spammers and trolls, as you've described.