Banned for life?

[Black Angel]

Nope.

If I've gotten to the point where I have to ban someone? I don't care about them or their feelings. They had opportunities to be good and behave... but they squandered them and burned any/all the good will they might have had.

And I'm not going to reverse their ban just so they can prove all over again that they shouldn't be allowed on site.

Bingo.

Three strikes and you'rrrree out.

Although we've had those who did try to come back under different names and ips.. (5 account wonder)

Once I ban, it is for life. And ever since I stated that any attempt to circumvent their punishment, however severe it may be, will be a permanent ban with no chance of coming back, the multiple accounts stopped.

I usually leave a small window of opportunity open for those who did earn the ban to grow up, or blow off some steam and try again and that is why I encourage people to contact me by posting in the guest area. Though it all depends on what they did to get banned and how long they were on the forum and we've known each other. In that case, the decision to ban would hurt.

For example, if VZ, hypothetically, started acting out and got himself banned, then I would disable his account and contact him offline to see what was up since I know he isn't like that. I'd be more inclined to think that something happened in his personal life and out of concern, I'd try to talk to him. I know that this behavior would be very unlike him and so, I would think that something was up.

He, other than my relatives, is the only person I'd reach out to like that, and to THAT extent because we've been friends for nearly a decade, and I'd feel that because of our friendship, that I owed him that chance. As for what he did, on the forum, I'd still be pissed, but I'd clean it up, and ask Jcink to restore my forum from a recent backup and then try to move on from there, and not say anything about what occurred.. but I wouldn't ban him, and if he wanted me to, I'd re-enable his account.

I had someone apologize for their behavior and when I let them come back after a month they behaved themselves. Although that person was only on their second strike and a month into their suspension and they were active for more than a year.

I think the closest I've come to having a member that was like this, was a spambot named 'nawabshah' and it was like he kept coming back with new ips.. even though he was under the same account.

He was from Pakistan, and annoyed me so much that after banning about 6 of his ips, I considered banning the entire country and others where I've only gotten spambots from. I've been pissed off about those who refused to stay banned in general, but this guy just gave me the creeps.

He would log in to the SAME account. So during that time, whenever I logged in and saw the users that had been on for the day, I'd see his name in red with a strike-through. It pretty much reminded me of a guy who just wouldn't take no for an answer.

No. Matter. What.

 

[master412160]

I was banned from ForumPromotion for life, but Nerdie was nice enough to let me come back once he bought the community.

Really, I think ALMOST everyone deserves another chance.

This. I'm reffering to the last line. Cause I wasn't banned but did have a permission feature restored after a period of not being able to use those certain features here on FP.

Nope.

If I've gotten to the point where I have to ban someone? I don't care about them or their feelings. They had opportunities to be good and behave... but they squandered them and burned any/all the good will they might have had.

And I'm not going to reverse their ban just so they can prove all over again that they shouldn't be allowed on site.

People can change and often do. So giving a second chance after a long time can't hurt and is worth a shot. So I'm disagreeing with your statement that once you ban a troublesome user they will always remain troublesome even if you give them a second chance. So to not unban them because of that thought is a wrong judgement.

 

[Black Angel]

If there is a member up there who is constantly disrespecting the members and staff, and spamming up the place with porn and is doing other things on the forum that can not only get you into trouble with your host, but the law as well and has destroyed part of your forum when they got into a mods' account, then that is not only a person who deserves a ban, but it is a person that does not deserve a second chance and has earned being reported to their ISP and the law for harassment and posting of illegal content, such as pirated links, viruses or worse, child porn.

This isn't a person who should receive a slap on the wrist, this is a person who should stay gone and be arrested.

Rules are there not just for the protection of the community and its members, but the admins themselves. Someone who is looking to disrupt the community to that extent is not a person that should be coddled especially since, their actions can get you into trouble.

 

[eastwest]

I think before banning someone permanently, we should give couple of warnings if not we can suspend him or her for few weeks and give them opportunity again, then if mistakes repeated then we can ban them permanently. how do you think.

 

[cenydd]

I think before banning someone permanently, we should give couple of warnings if not we can suspend him or her for few weeks and give them opportunity again, then if mistakes repeated then we can ban them permanently. how do you think.

Absolutely. I have been on some forums that are very quick to wield the ban hammer for single errors (or expressing an opinion that mods/admin don't happen to like), but that isn't what moderation should be about, IMO. I think some people view their forum as their own little fiefdom, but to me that defeats the object of having a place for people to discuss things.

I actually have this little section at the end of my forum rules to make it clear exactly what moderation is about, and why it is there:

Rules and Moderation
THE RULES AND THEIR APPLICATION ONLY EXIST TO KEEP THE DEBATE CIVIL!
Threads, posts or comments that are determined to be in violation of any of the forum rules, or against the intention of the forum, may be edited or deleted, and can result in measures being taken against the posting member. Members will be encouraged to comply with the rules, and the intention of the forum, by such measures. However, each member is responsible for their own posting behaviour and ultimately those who refuse to abide by the forum rules will have to take the consequences for their own actions.

The purpose of moderation is to encourage members to comply with the rules and enter the spirit of things along with everyone else, and to do that by using the tools available to moderators (warnings, temp bans, etc.), in escalation if they ignore the previous actions, until it becomes clear that the member has no intentions of making serious attempts to improve their behaviour. At that point, I will ban them permanently, and as it says in the above passage, they only have themselves to blame! Sometimes that does mean that some rule violators might hang about a little longer than they would in some places, but I'd much rather that everyone has a fair opportunity to fit in and play nice than be banning people for making one or two mistakes (especially when it comes to discussing politics, because passions can run high and people can occasionally get caught up in the heat of the moment and post something that they shouldn't - that doesn't necessarily make them bad members (in fact, sometimes the best forum members are passionate people who let that passion get the better of them occasionally)).

 

[Ashley S]

I've never permanently banned a member yet thankfully and hopefully I don't to and I've been administrating forums since early 2007.

 

[Migi]

People can change and often do. So giving a second chance after a long time can't hurt and is worth a shot. So I'm disagreeing with your statement that once you ban a troublesome user they will always remain troublesome even if you give them a second chance. So to not unban them because of that thought is a wrong judgement.

Everyone could change, true, but there is not a guarantee either that he would behave once the ban is lifted. What would you do if you gave someone a second chance and he ruined your forum/website by then? I mean, it does hurt if you've changed and not given a second chance, but chances don't always come twice. So you need to do your best on every chance you're given. Permanently banned members must have been given many chances in the past to improve, though, yet they failed to do so. Or so I think.

Perhaps I'm being too negative.

But thankfully, as an administrator or a moderator, I never have to permanently ban a member (not counting spam bots, of course).

 

[Pinky]

Yep, banned and then gave them a second chance only for them to do it again but that was only one member so far. I allowed them back on as I thought they would have learnt their lesson and respect other members but no.

I've also had banned members rejoin using part of their email as their old banned username. They think I don't know I'm sure but allowed them to continue their membership but am keeping an eye on them. They managed to join up again because in one of their posts they said they had a relationship break up and moved to a new flat, so new IP. If the member behaves I don't mind.

I always thought banned for life might be a bit extreme with everybody being human sometimes we deserve a second chance but some people will not learn, so after the second ban that's it really.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Quite a few people from various forums I have ran have made me mad enough to ban for life. And I hate doing that too besides to a spammer, spammers are not human lol

 

[VirusZero]

By the time I'm ready to ban someone, they've had several chances to change and fix their behaviour. They have been warned. But because they didn't change it shows me that they very likely aren't going to.

So like I mentioned previously, I'm not going to unban them so they can turn around and misbehave again.
If I did unban them it sends the message that I'm ok with people misbehaving and that any punishments I do hand out are jokes because in a short time that punishment will be undone and they can go right back to whatever they were doing.
And that also sends the message that I value the rights of one misbehaving member more than the entire community of rule abiding people visiting our site.

Now sure in a few years they might change. (Especially if they're younger, like 14-15, when they joined and now they've grown up and out of a rebellious stage.) But again, I'm not going to unban them. They should have thought of the consequences before acting out. Especially since in most cases they were warned beforehand.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Yeah if I have to ban someone, chances are no matter what, they will stay banned.

 

[KOP24]

if the poster a constant trouble maker then banned for life. I have let a few posters have 2nd chance but after a while they are back to the old behaviour and causing trouble in which case I have to ban them.

 

[coldvamp]

Yes I've banned peope permanently for spamming and cuz they advertise thei forums .

 

[RossL]

I've had to ban a couple this week as they are using a new spamming technique (well new to me).

They post relevant posts for a few days and if someone makes a comment on the subject of their site, they quote them and respond, but in the quote they change the few words relevant to their site into a link. Luckily all posts on my forums are copied to an email account, so I catch them pretty quickly.