>being banned meant you couldn't even lurk, loading the site would give you a ban page

God I hated this part so fucking badly. I remember when I was in college briefly in 2010 and someone got our building banned, and no one could browse. It was basically a death sentence.
Also there was something with nokosage. I THINK that if you used nokosage, your sage would not appear but it's been so long that I can't remember.