That was the way normal bans worked. Pay :tenbux: and get your account reactivated. Permabans, which generally required really toxic* behavior were "we never want to see you on this site again." and you weren't supposed to re-register an account at all.

*Over the years Rich was running the site it seemed like "criticism of the mods" more frequently became a perma-bannable offense.

e: f, b.