That reminds me of the days of dial-up, and/or AOL's proxy servers. You could not ban the IP address of anyone from AOL, since their proxy servers served millions. We all learned the hard way--ban someone by IP, and five others would also sporadically lose access. All cell carriers today have limited IP addresses, so using an IP ban on one of them is always risky.
I am accessing AK now using a VPN, as the hotels I stay at have open WiFi. The only site that has blocked me so far is Craigslist. Eff 'em. I can see why (it's a lame attempt at warding off spammers), but all they are doing is hurting legitimate types like myself who just want to check ads from the notifications that come my way. It's not that I can't post, I can't even view CL some of the time. For some reason, today I can get through. Two days ago, same VPN node in Salt Lake City? Nope.