well the poll got locked, and this wasn't aimed at any one user in specific....
but this is my take on violating rules and punishment.
first off: getting by a ban is fairly easy. not sure how this forum does it, but some just bans hat user name, some emails, and some use other id (wont get specific). the first two are easy, the last requires some knowladge, but not hard.
second: i think for most people, a little public discipline works best
put a public warning meter under their name. they violate a rule, admin deletes post and adds to their warning. people will start to take them less serious.
implement a way for users to "hide" posts from certain users. again, put a counter under their name like "this user has 'X' people hiding their posts!"
again this post is not directed toward any specific user, i just think this may help keep people in line
While they both seem workable solutions in large scales, we're not talking about an endemic problem on this board. Our merry little band (of 1400? or so) seems for the most part polite, reasonable people.
Solution #1 involves our poor mr. admin (there are no mods) to start flagging posts. Given that situations leading to problems are either very rare or usually self-correcting, it seems like a lot of unnecessary overhead.
Solution #2 might work, but I don't think that this board is big (or obnoxious) enough to warrant that kind of measure. Yet.
For now I'd vote for making this a case-by-case basis. Just my $0.02
I also favor dealing with the bad apples on a case-by-case basis. It's a really great group of users overall. A big thanks to all of the polite, helpful users aboard!