Regarding bans

Rules shouldn't be set in stone, that's a really gross and abusive way to run a community. Everything should be based on circumstances, rules should be a guideline; a reference, not a sentence.

I disagree with this, Sarah. Punishments are set in stone for your protection. They ensure that everyone is treated equally for doing the same things. Your punishment for a crime should never be based on the subjectivity of the person addressing the crime. You attacked someone I don't like, you only get 1 point. You attacked someone I like, here's 5 points. That is an abusive way to run the community. They're specifically hard coded based on the severity of their social impact (ie: how many strikes you get for each offense, flaming you get 3, 4th is gone). This removes the moderators from having to weigh the severity of your crime and makes them responsible only for determining if one has occurred, reducing variation.

For punishments to be truly fair they need to handed out consistently and enforced equally.