I know chi off forum, quite a few of the collectibles guys do. And this is a rare case where what sounds like bullshit was actually true, I feel bad for Chi - but I also think he was a solid gold prick for doing it. Now I know it needs to be one rule for all, but in his case as I know the full story I do think he deserves a pass - maybe with a stipulation that he cant wear a sig for 6 months. On the flip side I can also see how much further Meta will turn into a cesspit of "but he got his account back" type posts.
You know him in real life or just off forum? Regardless of whether the excuses are true or not I don't really buy how they force someone to copy and paste. As I said before, I wouldn't be against change to forum policy as long as it's uniform. What I'm against it someone being unbanned just because of their rank, or their particular excuse is believed by one mod because that's unfair and just leads to complications and more people using certain excuses to get a pass. I know there's a difference between a newbie account who's posts are entirely copy and pastes and maybe a higher ranked account who just made the mistake once, but any punishment needs to be fair and applied evenly across the board. People who copy and paste usually do it to earn so I would be okay with them still being allowed to use their account but just not earn from it via signatures, so I think signature bans are something we should look at but only theymos can implement them. You could maybe choose to reinstate the signature after x amount of time if they're proved they're here to contribute something constructive during that time.