I think that how affected someone is by harassment relies on how attached they are to the medium or which they communicate. I haven't been in a chatroom in a ages, and if I ever went into one again, I doubt I would take anyone seriously. It's easy to just close the screen and leave. There might be some offensive language exchanged, but you'll go to bed that night, and dont have to wake up in reality to deal with that person in real life.

Whereas some people have an important identity online, and would feel harassed because they see it as a real part of them being put down. I think because the people in LambdaMOO were being harassed in front of their online friends, it heightened the sense of harassment because it confirmed the "reality" of it through others, though virtual. The more mad one person got, the more it fueled another person to be upset about it as they kept discussing it amongst themselves. Since it is the virtual world where no physical damage or experience was caused, I find it hard to determine a punishment. It really depends on the person who's harassed and how upset or violated that person thinks he/she is. I thought the online group did all they could do, try to find a way to seek justice through the medium of which they were harassed, the internet.