Yes, I attempted to intervene for Paul. I sent either a PM or an email to Agora requesting that he be reinstated, and also suggested that, when someone is banned, it should be specific to that forum and not system-wide. I was shot down by Agora on both.
As to the hub leader/violation thing in general, I couldn't agree with you more. If you take the time to look far enough back in my posting history, you will see I have consistently stated that I think the entire system should be done away with because it just promotes bad feelings and bickering. I'm one of the founders of this forum, and we didn't have any of those supposedly wonderful "bells and whistles" when we started --- everything was fine with an honorable person (which was Edigokie, as I recall) as the moderator.
I use these features on occasion because they are there, but my use is far less than that of others. Just from recollection, I think I've only banned one member, which was ccraider some time ago --- obviously, he got reinstated, and frankly, I'm not unhappy about that. I've had a few PM exchanges with cc recently, and he seems like a very nice fellow --- I'll never agree with him on the "motives and agendas" thing, but we can "agree to disagree without being disagreeable" on that. I've enjoyed "talking" with him, and I hope he feels the same way.
If you still have a question on the Markman issue, let me know and I'll try to answer it. I've gotten a couple of other questions in this evening, one pretty unusual in the way it was presented, and I'm going to try to answer those, too, while I have some spare time.
Best wishes.
