Board Thread:Site Discussions/@comment-1272757-20131112003859/@comment-3416945-20131112014421

Yes. If they just respond and say "I want my rights back, I'll be active.", they might not be reinstated immediately. If, however, they contribute to the site a bit by making a few edits elsewhere, then they should get their rights back. They should at least make a few edits before the bureaucrat reinstates them.

That statement is more or less a fallback to rely on in the unlikely event that a long-off administrator (Guess Who, for example) comes back unexpectedly, makes a few edits, and expects to receive his rights back. The longer the inactivity, the more skeptical a bureaucrat will be to resintate the user. This isn't the majority of cases, of course. Just users who have been inactive for years and years, come back, and expect to get their rights back. Like I said: it's a fallback statement.