@somethingedgey: often times this info comes to staff's attention from more private sources, outside of what's immediately and publicly available on the user's page

dmail interactions, an associated discord account, staff even caught some kids from the "are you 18 or older" question in their staff drives. I doubt mods sussed out random habit's of mid's typing and their ban more likely came from some responsible mutual or them letting out some more directly incriminating info directly to a mod