I expect them to go back to right where they were once their penalty is lifted. Assuming most of their visits were google searchers clicking on the top link, n

I expect them to go back to right where they were once their penalty is lifted. Assuming most of their visits were google searchers clicking on the top link, nearly all of those visits/day will come back once they're the top link again. Remember that a huge majority of people have not heard about this controversy. The hacker news sort of community is not their primary audience. It's possible they'll be bigger, what with all the free (though bad) press they've gotten.