Back in the day the IRC ban would most likely be handed by a human, or if automation was involved, the person behind the automation would be reachable. There's

Back in the day the IRC ban would most likely be handed by a human, or if automation was involved, the person behind the automation would be reachable. There's the potential for assholes of course, but at least those assholes weren't trying to monopolize humanity's entire social fabric so you could always join another IRC network if you were banned on one.