Ban wipe.

[Dimitris]

fine with me, i'd rather have a server filled with minges over an empty one

Minges that were banned in the past won't care to check if they are still banned or not. This is just a lie some people say. In reality, the only people that would return if a ban wipe was to happen, would be people that want to join the community again.

But what's stopping them from writing an unban request?
If it's been a while and they legit want to return, then they have good chances of having the UBR accepted.

Nothing is stopping them from writing an unban request. That still does not change the fact that a ban wipe or at least something similar to it would re-populate the server.