Also, when a ban is set, the responsible mod/admin should post stating that he banned some user and which rule was broken.
lolwut
You're not a member in many forums, I see... On 90% of the forums I have an account with they ban anyone who just asks why someone else was banned. They don't even get the chance to question the reasons, unlike here, where it seems to be an habit to start a shitstorm because someone else was banned.
Moderators and Administrators owe you no explanation for their decisions or actions when those decisions and actions don't affect you, even if you think they do owe you something.
No one forced you to register, and if you don't like to be here no one forces you to stay. Just press the logout button and go.
This affects me in the way that I'm now aware of one of the unwritten rules which might get me banned if I don't follow it.
If you think that suggesting forum improvements is a sign of me wanting to quit being here, maybe this place is to intellectual for you, and you should hang more on those other 9 forums you have accounts with.
Having all bans/suspensions automatically publicized isn't a very good idea. You're thinking in terms of accountability, but completely forgetting about people's privacy in the process. If poster x gets a week off for posting My Little Pony porn, do you really think that's any of your or anyone else's business? If the poster chooses to make it public that's fine. But that's his choice to make, not yours.
You wouldn't have to state the exact reason, just that something like "user x is banned for y days for breaking rule 4.1".
If users don't know the rules, it's impossible to follow them.
The same rules should apply to everyone, and in my opinion there are both people who deserve to be banned both more and less than goat, if the ban reason was "He wasn't discussing anything anymore, just restating the same points over and over."