Sometimes this place reminds me of an unmoderated USENET newsgroup. But, every so often I do come across a banned member. So, there must be rules. Gosh, I can't imagine what those guys did to get banned though, for some of the things I see the regular members doing are simply outrageous (see Fryman for example). So, what are the bannable offenses?
Nowadays we only tend to use the Infraction system rather than straight bans. 0 Post PM spammers who choose to Spam mods/admins or multiple members are pretty much the only exception. The only way to get banned here really is to rake up a range of infractions. It would require 6 to 10 infractions depending on the type of offense. There's a lot of people always on that edge, they seem to enjoy the strategic psychological bashing. It's sort of hidden in plain sight and we let them get away with it. Those who do get banned have been rather silly. As long as people say "It is my opinion that the entire population from this country are such and such..." rather than stating it as fact, they're likely to get away with it for reasons of free speech. Not that I want to share tips to circumvent our rules of course The 'outrageous' behaviour you point out tends to be of the nature that we mostly feel even n00bs should be able to see through and ignore. No, it's not nice but at the same time, it hardly ever crosses acceptable lines. People react differently to irony and sarcasm and we're not here to tell them what is what. We'd leave it to their own judgement. Some need to toughen up a little, others should tone it down IMO but each to their own. So to get back to your question: PM/1st Post Spam = immediate ban. Duplicate Account = immediate ban. Attacking or distinctively (universally known) foul language = a 3d on your way to infraction-caused ban. All the rest doesn't affect you much unless you are a collector of sorts.
You just don't notice how much work moderators do (which is a good thing)... Currently there are 1,039 banned users, and another 568 users that had their accounts deleted or merged (usually duplicate accounts). If you see anything out of line in any post, just use the "Report This Post" function.
Sure, I may not see it, but it can't be any easier here than at Sitepoint. Just seems a bit more relaxed here, the rules I mean, imo.
I ban people everyday. And it's a real pain in the ass! Well yeah, it's a chill place. We don't ban people for disagreeing with us or not liking us.