BlackThorny: I wouldn't disdain the conspiracy part altogether, some users did get targeted for no reason, see "zeogold" to name one.
Alaric.us: True. However, I feel this would become a non-issue if the rules were applied uniformly per incident. Like if you violated the rules it wouldn't matter if you are the wonderful, beloved, pillar of the community or a horrible, scary, troll and literally Hitler. Same violation should equal same punishment in all cases.
I actually don't agree with such non-discriminative policing.
If you are Hitler, you are most likely stirring for trouble for profit, self gratification or plain due to being evil.
When you act bad, you should be punished severely, If you continue, a (semi-)permanent ban is definitely in order.
Not the same if you are a beloved pillar... or just an average joe who happen to make a mistake during an emotional argument.
Where I do agree, is single posts should be dealt with non bias objectivity - If you smear, you should be prepared to get your post die miserably no matter how productive your other arguments were and who's on your team of followers.
But posts dying due to spam reports mechanic should definitely get revised and only used for actual spam and foul language.
edit: I do wonder the trigger and non conspiracy that caused me losing a rep point just now - considering I only posted in 4 threads today, the summer sale page, the removal of Fall Flat , this thread and "that other one" mentioned here earlier.
edit 2: I found the reason for the loss of one point, I leave it to you to judge if it was justified or targeted by bias.
edit 3: that one post, that wasn't even remotely offending, just opposing someones own (unjustified) belief,
got down-voted enough to make me lose 3 rep points in 2 hours time, until that whole thread was removed.
sure, there is no clique and no conspiracy, sure.