What's occurring? Who's been reporting what?
I agree that leaving people with enough rope is the way forward, Chestnut. When posts get deleted you can't see what was said, so you have to fill in the gaps and can easily get it wrong. Obviously anything that compromises GN has to be nuked, but I remember reading a post a while ago from someone who said that she was a long-time lurker who never posted, but regularly reported other people. I was quite shocked - what motivates people like that?
I don't think people coming back under a different name is a reporting offence, VS. If someone wants to to reinvent themselves, why not? That's the nature of the Internet. 'Some posters' come back under a different name and then carry on being as mean as they did under their original name, but they trip themselves up before long - it's not easy to hide a posting style. Isn't it funny how they out themselves so quickly? ?