I believe that it depends on the transgression. Recently, a poster posted personal information about a member that potentially identified that member. Specifically, the type of car that he drives. This poster was not banned, and appallingly, was allowed to continue to post on this Board (although the offending post was deleted). Many members seemed to give a pass to the poster, as did MERB. I was harshly criticized for demanding the banishment of the poster. However, dissemination of personal info is an offense warranting the death penalty. If it is tolerated, you will see this Board quickly disappear. It is plain and simple cyberterrorism. And it does not matter what the reason, or whether the poster is actually George Bush, Paul Martin, the reincarnated ghost of Rene Levesque, or, as is more likely, a Montreal agency owner with an agenda.
Then we get into the category of lesser rule violations: flaming, accusing an SP of having an STD based on pure speculation as opposed to medical evidence, shilling, posting under 2 handles, etc. These are offenses that warrant the 3 strike rule: 2 public warnings, 3rd time your out.
Then we have the posters who I will call the "Crappers": they habitually post nothing but crap, and make no positive contribution of any kind to the Board. However, the crap that is posted, while irritating and wasteful of MERB bandwidth, does not per se violate any posting rules. I believe that the Crappers should also be given public warnings and reprimands. If after the second warning there is still no constructive post, the Crapper is suspended until he makes a constructive post.
I also believe that the regular contributors should receive some kind of an award so as to incentivize constructive posting by all. For example, TBD used to award VIP status to certain posters who regular and postively contributed. MERB should do the same. I would nominate Oliver Kloseoff, Stripper Lover, Special K, and a few others I can't think of right now for being long time contributors to the Board. Although I have had disagreements with some of these guys and in the case of SL have been very disappointed in his failure to take a more active role in rooting out shills, his and their overall contributions cannot be ignored.