Quote Originally Posted by BiBi___ View Post
it's like timing out someone in a stream chat on twitch, or giving them a temp forum ban.

ie. things get heated, can stop someone from saying something nasty, that they might regret in the future.
As a leader of a MMO group who's used this option, believe me, it usually just makes even more problems. "Why did you silence him?" "Going to silence all of us now?"

It's a lose/lose situation for leaders. :/