Do you believe in permenant bans?

[Fiona1964]

I will only do a permanent ban if they do something really bad like sending nasty PM to staff/members and then only after a warning

 

[Mik.]

I do believe in them when they have been warned more than 3 times.

 

[Medora]

Most of the time I find that it is sufficient to merely talk the matter over with a member, as he may have simply misunderstood or was ignorant. Also, it may disarm the member when he knows you are treating him as an equal, and he may choose to back down though his actions were dishonest or malicious.

Along those lines, I remember reading accounts by teachers who said that parents would sometimes be hostile about a teacher's material or methods, but would quickly change their mind after having a meeting with that teacher and realizing that she is not the villain that was imagined who had something other than honest and good motives at heart.

Going back to a member being dishonest or malicious but backing down after being talked to, there was one person trolling my forum until I politely asked him to stop. He admitted his mistake and pointed out that he was simply unprepared for my reply to him. Here was what I said:

May you please tone down your posts, Mr. Zuckerman. I don't appreciate my server space being used for you to make sex jokes and talk about your penis wherever you post.

Here was part of his reply:

In any case, I was hoping I'd be verbally crucified if I stepped out of line, rather than politely chastised... Because I can joust with the former, whereas it's just a dick move to disrespect the latter.

How dare you be a reasonable and respectful human being, huh!? Huh?!

This member went on to be productive, and I did not have any more issues with him.

That aside, I have only bothered with the permanent ban. Fortunately, I have only banned twice since my forum's founding in 2004, and in each instance a member made clear his unwillingness to work with me.

 

[Coastercraze]

I tend to use it as a last resort. Perma bans are usually my first choice on spammers (and bots) because you know they don't have anything to contribute and will just continue to spam.