What do you think? Is plagiarism always intentional or can there be some specific cases in which it is not? It is not clear to me.
Imo, plagiarism can be unintentional; a user can quote someone else without any intention of stealing the idea and forget to link the source, they are difficult to prove but is possible.
Unfortunately, high-ranking member have a chance to try to justify their position more than newbies.
From the discussions theymos has had on ban cases, rank does not really matter much, what's most important when considering to oardkn a violator of the rules is their contribution to the forum, i.e, if they are net positive to the forum.
Newbies are fairly new and would have spent too little a time to impact the forum much, but they would not be disregarded simply casue they are 'new'.