I also think that it is not possible to ban him technically without injuring other users. The IP block that he is coming from is registered as a large broadband ISP (BellSouth). Blocking the small range that was already set up will not be enough, because it does not cover their entire DHCP range.

Discovered this, of course. Hence his ability to create a new user account and respond here. I removed the IP range ban yesterday so that no one else from Bellsouth gets blocked.

As you point out, it's difficult to systematically ban a user without some manual labor on the part of the admins. I can kill a given account, or I can prevent accounts using a specific return email, but that doesn't stop the user from masquerading under another email address, including addresses from free web-based email services.

I knew all of this going in. I knew he'd figure it out and come back in under another username. I knew he'd find this thread and respond to it. What I didn't know is what he'd say when he came back. I was hoping he'd see how much reactionary anger was generated by his bot (directly and indirectly), and admit that it was wrong to do it, apologize, and promise not to do it any more. He didn't.

At the current time, he denies he's done anything wrong and has not displayed any remorse for his actions. He's been given the opportunity to apologize properly, and has refused to do so. As I've stated before, his publicly-displayed disdain for community order makes it difficult to believe that he'd behave himself in the future.

However, there are those who believe that he really didn't do any harm, and that the ban was an overreaction.

I now have the following choices, which I open up to a poll.