Following on from what I was speculating about earlier, I think there has actually been a quiet change in moderation policy at REEEE. Seems like there are less bans being handed out the last few days.
I may be completely wrong and it could be just because there is a lull in the controversial topics, or it could be that all of the sane people have abandoned ship.
I don't yet have any hard evidence to back it up, but I do think there has been a policy shift.
if there was it should be reflected in the ban site in the coming weeks
the main thing I wonder is, when do you get to the point of realizing multiple 1-7 day bans don't really silence the viewpoints you don't want to see, so either you step up the perms or lay off of it and see what happens
I think you'll end up seeing a lot more threads closed for not being productive

because it prevents further posts that might be deserving of bans
ban the discussion instead of the people
that's why there's been a lot more meta around "uh can you clarify exactly what we're allowed to talk about here, you've closed this same John Carmack thread 3 times but now there's a meta-article about it, can we talk about that...?"