I think there more to add to the 2 million words already posited on this topic. To wit:

Earlier: "... how the community treats its members as opposed to [how the community treats] outsiders..."

Peter Blaise responds: I don't think there ARE any outsiders, actually, just those who haven't used (or been used by) Wikipedia in any way, and those who have (or will). Unless you mean spammers, vandals and off-topic posters as the "outsiders"?

"... punished ..."

Peter Blaise responds: The concept of "punishment" is absurd, and should never be a part of any community. Anyone who has committed a crime against the community does three things to remedy their actions, or we arrest / banish them until they do:

1 - stop

2 - fix

3 - prevent

... and those are things the "transgressor" does, not things the "punisher" does! "Punishment" only makes those who are saddled with the responsibility of punishing others into mean and base people, trains the offender to further disconnect, only more surreptitiously, and wastes everyone's time.

Earlier: ... if two people transgress equally ..."

Peter Blaise responds: ... an impossibility. Take each case on it's own merits.

Perhaps someone could summarize, condense, and release a "Reader's Digest" version of this thread and the supporting documentation ... hahahahah!