Immediate ban?

[John]

Would you ever immediately ban someone? Or would you give them a warning first?

 

[MasterA]

I guess this would depend on what the person has done. If there was scamming involved then I would certainly ban them straight away. However if it was like spamming and they had been around on the forum for a while, then I would give them a second chance.

 

[David S]

For me it would have to be something pretty serious to do that. Also I think warnings are the way to go sometimes, rather than a ban. If somebody does a immediate ban for the wrong reasons, then there an idiot. You have to be sensible about this, one mistake you make and it can be all wrong. Reminders are the way to go.

 

[Mobisco]

The only immediate bans I've ever done were for spammers.
If it's a regular member, contacting them and talking to them is the way to go. No need to slam that ban hammer because it can backfire.

 

[Lord Saru]

Using the ban hammer should be the last resort for any moderator. The reason is simple - all niches are too crowded that people has a million choices 😉

 

[R44]

Using the ban hammer should be the last resort for any moderator. The reason is simple - all niches are too crowded that people has a million choices 😉

Yes, but are those million choices the best ones?

 

[Cosmic]

On one forum I moderated, the only offense which could result in an insta-ban, no warning, was the posting of pornographic material, including words, or more commonly ASCII art, and also some extreme instances of avoiding the word filter. Most other offenses involved the issuing of multiple warnings.

On my own forum, I have never had reason to issue a permanent ban to anyone. Even spam bots I typically prefer to put them on modqueue, but my forum also has stellar anti-spam software. The only spam bot I've ever had was one which could just as well be a poor third-world person in a sweat shop.

 

[Geoffrey]

My policy is if the person makes it clear they don't want to be on the forum and they're only going to cause trouble (troll), then I'm going to ban that person. If that happens immediately (after one post), then so be it.