I'm not one who was part of the Lir/Vera/Susan dispute, & I'll admit that I'm ignorant of many of the more subtle & minor details of this issue, but there are 3 very important points here that means the person who is Lir/Vera/Susan will remain banned from Wikipedia for the foreseeable future:
1) Jimmy Wales has stated that Lir/Vera/Susan is banned. And despite what the rest of us may think, as long as Jimmy is paying for the server & the bandwidth, he calls the rules. If you don't like that fact, then come up with enough money so that Wikipedia won't come to a sudden end if Jimmy decides to (literally) pull the plug & spend his money on something he finds more rewarding.
(And I must needs add here that Jimmy is far more laid back & understanding than I would ever be in his situation. One does not accidentally piss off Jimmy -- one must make a concerted effort to do so.)
2) There have been a number of efforts to get Lir/Vera/Susan to discuss his/her reasons for his/her actions or opinions. The one that made the most definite impression on me was when Ed Poor, who had been in private discussion with Lir/Vera/Susan, tried to get him/her to discuss his/her viewpoint with the peopel on this mailling list. And Lir/Vera/Susan abruptly decided to be silent.
Now I'll admit that sometimes I'm struck dumb when I want to provide a defense for my actions, but this was one of those ``put up or shut up" moments: either Lir/Vera/Susan offered some kind of explanation for his/her acts, or stopped entirely, out of shame or embarassment for being unable to justify them. Lir/Vera/Susan has done neither.
3) Lastly, there are a lot of people here on Wikipedia who, frankly speaking, consider Lir/Vera/Susan to be an asshole. Why would anyone want to hang around a group of people who think she/he is an asshole? Wikipedia is not the only game in town: there's the everything2 & the h2g2 projects. Lir/Vera/Susan could join either of those, & prove he/she has reformed & is capable of making valuable contributions there.
Now comes Zoe with her question:
How many freaking times do we have to go over this?
Unfortunately, as many times as Lir/Vera/Susan returns to Wikipedia with a new name, & as many times as we have new contributors. Perhaps we need an FAQ or similar document to help reduce the number of questions about this unique individual.
Geoff