Robert Graham Merkel wrote:
Hmmm. As I understood it, a ban was just that, a ban. No wiggle room. Doesn't that imply that any contributions from a banned individual should be deleted on the spot, and not reinstated?
Not as a logical consequence. Any rule to that effect would be a separate rule. I prefer to look at ideas based on their inherent merit. Judging those ideas solely on the basis of who produced them is an ad hominem argument.
It's only natural that knowing the author of certain comments will affect the degree of care with which we scrutinize a contribution. Once we have made that decision, the contents alone should influence our edits. Without some degree of flexibility our universe begins to resemble too closely something out of "Fahrenheit 451"
If people want to argue that a particular user should be unbanned, that's another issue.
That issue is not being disputed.
Ec