Correct me if i am wrong, i thought leniency as regards plagiarism more often than not applies to established users/users that have been here for quite a while and have contributed in one way or another, and thus if a misdemeanor they committed sometime past is found, then they could be given another chance, and if need be, maybe an addition of a signature ban or something of that sort.
Do newbies also get such chances?
No, you're not wrong--that's how it's been for as long as I can remember, and I even recall a time when not even established members would be given a second chance. If there's been any change as far as giving complete newbies who start off their bitcointalk "career" plagiarizing the content of others, it's news to me. And that would be a huge step backward, IMO.
Is there any chance the mods might not have caught up to the reports on these cases, OP? As far as I can tell, there haven't been any proclamations by Theymos and no word from the mods regarding any new policy toward leniency when it comes to plagiarism. Rich222 was the subject of a thread I posted in yesterday, and normally a member who'd been publicly hung out to dry as a plagiarist would have been banned already, so I'm hoping he and the rest of these plagiarists get the ban-hammer soon.
I think the administration probably didn’t want to waste any more time with ban appeals. I’m surprised to read that bans aren’t happening anymore. I’m sure it was a constant headache having to deal with people complaining about being banned.
No doubt it's a headache, but mods pretty much always ignored ban appeals anyway, so what changed?