From one who's never been banned...

I have always been happy to know that moderators were quickly removing threads which were degenerating into nastiness, and were censuring people who's posts contained attacks.

It's what made the community work so smoothly for many of us.

I'd think that if everyone kept to the rules of decorum, there would have been a whole lot less banning.

There were several times I felt provoked by a "stalker" who would post whenever I did, trying to get personal information from me, trying to hit hot buttons. whenever this happened, I just left the thread and gave no re-inforcement to the person. Either that worked, or a moderator noticed it, but my guess is the former. When provoked, walk away.