I don't know as RL gets "special" favors, but it's true that he gets "favors". That is, I customize my approach to RL to take into account his special needs (as I sometimes do for you, Bowser).

One school of thought is that a community like the Zone ought to have an extensive set of formal rules, and that those rules should be enforced consistently. I resist that POV because the result would be to select community members for conformity, and produce a community of clones. We'd be the CloneZone, and have to call ourselves Cloners. A society that demands its members conform to a societal norm is an oppressive society.

I think a civilized (aka habitable) community must adapt to meet the needs of as many of its members as possible. The "greatest good for the greatest number" isn't about maximizing conformity, it's about maximizing diversity, that is, creating an environment with minimal constraints on individuality. I don't think that "habitable" and "comfortable" are necessarily synonyms. I'll try to keep the Zone a habitable place, in the sense that you can survive; but I don't guarantee that you'll always find it a comfortable place. Comfort is something you'll have to create on your own.

As for RL, I guess I have stretched the "rules" farther for him than for anybody else (to date). He's in a custom state developed exclusively for him: He participates for as long as he can keep his temper under control; and when his control eventually fails him, I send him away to cool off. Participation at the Zone for RL is a process of about twenty steps forward, 19 back, and I'm focused on "compounding" that 5% improvement over time.

As I wrote to "Suri", the "Psycho Stalker", "RL may be a sick puppy, but he's our sick puppy". A community takes care of its members, even when they're occasionally a pain in the ass. And who among us has not been a pain in the ass from time to time?