The most common tact is the use of legal threats. In an increasingly litigious world these can be powerful threats. The battle against on-line anonymity and protection behind an ISP has had a sad effect in the complaint game. While people struggle to ban on-line anonymity they are attempting to do it by placing more responsibility upon the ISPs. This weakens the ISP s position in the complaint game.
Responsibility means legal responsibility.
As more rulings chip away at an ISP s common carrier status, ISP s get more skittish. They become more susceptible to being bullied into terminating an account on lesser offenses. What this means to you, is that if you express any opinion that risks bothering anyone, you might be cut off from the Internet. The user playing the game knows this. They use it.