Nobody was banned for posting under the character limit. Some members were given a temporary one-week suspension, after multiple warnings beforehand, for repeatedly breaking a forum policy that they disagreed with.
That said, actions between Mods/Admins and individual members aren’t a subject for forum discussion. It’d be best if this thread got back on track, or as close to it as it was a few posts ago.
Spaces in normal context do count. Adding unnecessary spaces, dots, dashes, or random words (like “this is to meet 20 characters”) just for the sake of reaching the minimum character limit aren’t acceptable.
The issue was discussed and explained in this thread. That thread has been locked because there’s nothing left to discuss and the issue is, for all practical purposes, settled.