I didn't start out as an expert, and I'm still nowhere near an expert--but I did not begin my time on bitcointalk plagiarizing other people's words.  That's the reason why most of these members are being banned for offenses committed months to years ago, not spam.  Members rarely get banned for spam anyway.

I've suggested that a number of times, but it's never been implemented.  There are problems with the suggestion as well.  For one thing, most banned members know exactly what they did and are playing dumb when they start an appeal thread.  They just want the mods or other members to jump through hoops looking for examples of plagiarism.  

Second, banned members are still going to create appeals threads in which they're going to make excuses, plead for mercy, and blah blah blah.  Even if they got a PM upon receiving a permaban that showed exactly what they did wrong, it probably wouldn't make much of a difference.

Let's face it:  most people here are just wasting bandwidth and burying good posts under a mountain of shit.  That's why the Bitcoin/Altcoin Discussion sections aren't worth reading--and those ought to be some of the best sections here.  

I'm grateful the mods are kicking some ass right now, because bitcointalk definitely needs a good house cleaning.