Drew-r Would you please spell it out a bit more …. are you saying the banned are not allowed to even read at PW? This suggests they are monitoring IPAddrs, cookies or other embedded finger prints , which might be called for if we were Snowden wannabes, but we’re talking a garden variety web forum here, not the Pentagon ….. ? what, exactly, is incognito mode?
Your login at just about any web site is recorded by your browser in a cookie ... in the form of an encrypted code. The browser records it when asked to by the web site. So, whenever you visit a site, any prior cookies left by that site are sent to the site. That includes your I-am-logged-in-here cookie.
So if I was logged into PW (I was) and then banned (I was), then on my next visit the web site knows who I am and responds accordingly. Since I'm banned it replies with a "you are banned".
Whenever I log out (any web site) the I-am-logged-in-here cookie is deleted. In my case I manually deleted the PW cookies. So on my next visit I was able to view normally ... but not logged in. So I have no preference settings, and I have no identity there.
Incognito mode is available in some (most?) browsers. In this mode the use of cookies is restricted ... so you remain relatively anonymous. There are more details that I omit ... but being retired I just don't much care for techie stuff anymore. I was something like a CyberGene in my younger days. Now I'm more like grandpa in a rocking chair. 🙂