I'd like to take some salt out of the conversation and just state that we really arent at a point were this ban has any benefit for the community, it woulda been best to have ignored zottles statement, or condone it in one post without taking action. now that the action is taken, I understand that reverting it is somewhat hard to do. may I propose to just change the perm ban to a months ban and we all just stop talking about it? there is no merit in it in any way.
I used to live in Vernon, BC with an old doctor a few years back, and he told me following story: once he helped giving birth to a child on a farm back in the 70ies. afterwards he was given drink after drink in celebration. when finally driving home - totally wasted - a police officer stopped him. he pulled over, and the officer made him step out of the car. they knew each other, and the officer told him that he cant let him drive on like that. he then grinned, got out to bottles of beer, they drank it at the side of the road, then he drove the doc home. take home message:
james, please think about considering a more relative approach to rules and enforcing them : )