Speaking for myself only--
a.) I've never understood why someone would sign on with another name in the first place--it just seems sneaky to me;
b.) With one exception, I don't care who they are or what they've done here in the past--if they return and stick to making even semi-appropriate posts and are polite, they're welcome;
c.) One of the things that has made so many of us stick around for so long is our willingness to accommodate one another: someone doesn't like repetitive signatures? They were gone. Someone dislikes seeing routinely-used swear words? They're relegated to strongly-expressed feelings. This kind of thing has been done time and time again, even though the majority may have had no problem with what was complained about. Sure, everybody has the "right" to express themselves however they want to; but pretty much everybody here who has stayed long enough to become a "regular" has set aside this right, and been extraordinarily gracious in adapting so as not to cause offense/offence to others. And I say extraordinary because we were/are just a group of strangers; one would expect people to go out of their way not to offend their friends, but here we were, by sheer coincidence (well, coincidence beyond a love of words).
Even seeing the exception's name still makes me tremble, and it's been years.