I've been here for ages so you all know I've got countless stories to tell and dirt to dish on people that have long since abandoned the site (or still lurk).
First ban I ever got was a few weeks after joining. Soriku was really active and people started to complain because you would see him everywhere all the time, but there was nothing in the rules against posting a lot. One of the admin made up a rule on the spot about short length posts (under ten words or so) being considered spamming, and anyone who didn't meet the word count was eligible for an instant one day ban. It was supposed to be a trap for Soriku but he never fell for it. I and several other users got banned for it though. Said rule got dropped about 2 weeks after which makes it even sillier. This was back in 2007 and the current ban history doesn't go back that far.
I got another ban after that in a thread about best FPS game. I said something like "Goldeneye, bitches!" and got banned for that.
Worst ban I ever got was during the GTA4 frenzy, back when the fanboy wars were at their peak. There was a really stupid notion that "GTA4 will kill the Wii," something that didn't make sense then and makes even less sense now. Since claiming that you wanted the Wii to get destroyed would get you banned, people clung on to GTA4 as their holy grail and used it as a shield. This resulted in ridiculous and stupid hype and there was a big GTA4 IGN Review thread where I called the review out as bullshit (this is the "oscar worthy one"). People actually got angry at me and defended the review, which is hilarious in hindsight because it's the review everyone ridicules during the GTA4 backlash.
ssj12 tried to get witty with me and misused the word epiphany, the exchange is easily seen here. I got perma banned because of that thread. The ban got dropped into a 1 month ban, with the official explanation being that the permaban was a "glitch," but even 1 month was extreme. All of my complaints got blocked by ssj12 and he told me that the ban was because of "ioi's wishes." When the ban was over, I PMed several mods asking them why I was banned (there was no ban reason listed), a got a lot of different responses ("vulgar language," "escalating bans") but none of them could agree and did say that the ban was extreme. But I already knew it was because ssj12 was butthurt over what I said. That was the first time I really noted the disarray in the mod team ranks, that they weren't keeping track of who was banned and for what reasons, and that a mod could so willfully abuse his power and never face the consequences. I seriously considered leaving the site at that point.
Tag - "No trolling on my watch!"