UBB.threads PHP Forum Software Community Forums General Suggestions and Feedback Ban the Ban!

I've recently had some quite annoying maniac posting to the forum and although I wanted very much to ban him this wasn't the right thing to do. If you think about it, ban is an equivalent of shooting someone in real life. They may or may not come back but if they do you can shoot *cough* …ban them again until it's over <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />. Instead of dealing with a problem and looking for solutions as you would normally do IRL, ban provides a ruthless shortcut - bang! I think it is not only teaches the new internet generation a very bad lesson of how to deal with people, it also is very uncivilised and should be used in extremely rare cases like spam for example. Even if someone misbehaves they are still entitled to their opinion whether you like it or not.

So, there is already a feature on most boards that allows to ignore PMs, but I don’t think I've seen one that allows to ignore posts. What would be interesting is if you could ignore the posts together with quotes of those posts posted by other users and most importantly let the user know who ignoring them, this however could be optional:

Let the user know you're ignoring them?
[]yes
[]no

All those maniacs have a shelf life period, they would go away by themselves, but being patient is an important human virtue.

Discuss.

> I don’t think I've seen one that allows to ignore posts.

Actually you can ignore an user in 6.5

This is fantastic! But... You can still see their quotes posted by other users and what about if you want them to know you are ignoring them?

What's to stop them from registering another account with a differant email just to harass one user becuase they "know" they're ignoring them...

I never really understood ignoring people anywho, it'd have to throw the conversation off for the user ignoring people; i mean, you see somene responding to something which just isnt' there...

[]What's to stop them from registering another account with a differant email just to harass one user becuase they "know" they're ignoring them...[/]

What's to stop them from registering another account if you ban them?

A direct IP ban, or a subnet ban of their IP range would put them in their place (generally) <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />...

banning is useless for the more persistent people <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yeh, i've been known to turn on new user moderation for the more persistant aolers (darn AOL and their proxyness)

new user moderation is what has worked for me when someone would keep re-registering.

I too use 100% new-user moderation actively monitor new blood. I've had this since day one and it works well, provided you have the time to devote (we get 5 or so new members per day). This wouldn't work for supersites with limited staff of course.

While I agree that bannishment should be a last resort, I don't think it's your only recourse as a site Administrator. Our community has a set of long-standing, very straight forward and easily followed rules based on mutual respect between members. A user who violates them gets a warning or guidance. Repeated violations result in suspension of posting privileges (along with a change in User Title to "Suspended" for all to see) for a time determined by our "Board of Directors" (group of Moderators). Once the user suspension is up, their posting privileges are reinstated and their User Title changes to "Probation" for specific time before it returns to normal. If the user still doesn't get it (repeated violations), or attempts to circumvent the suspension (by reregistering), they are bannished forever.

As a result, our community (almost 8000 strong) is thriving at a very high maturity level, without the typical flame wars and trolls that seem to permeate the net. I've only had to bannish a handfull of bad apples over 7 years of operation. (BTW, our age demographics peak in the early 20s, then taper off quickly after age 35.)

Also, I disagree with the sentiment that misbehavior has to be tolerated based on the member "having a right to their opinion." There's a definite contrast between outright violation of community rules (which I hope you have), and having a strong opinion. I'm sure most of us as Site Administrators have been called every name in the book for preceived censorship from time to time. It comes with the territory. Some members feel they have the "right" to do and say anything they want in your community, which simply isn't true. A reminder that membership is a privilege, not a right usually sets them straight.

Just my two cents on site moderation. PM me if you would like to discuss more about the topic.

[]You can still see their quotes posted by other users [/]

But the quotes are part of another user's post! You want to censor another user's post becuase of an ignored user? Leaving aside the issue that technically it would be difficult to do so.

How about time bans? These work really well because they allow the user time to "cool off". Will time bans be introduced in v7?

Yes Paul, you've made a sensible post and I especially like the reminder that membership is a privilege, I shall remember to use it more often <img src="https://www.ubbcentral.com/boards/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> . However in my experience someone's controversial behaviour often acts like a magnet towards other users, and there is nothing unnatural in this. Besides you can't possibly express the opinion of 8000 people about whether or not someone should be banned, even if you have 100 moderators. Maturity is when you can tolerate misbehaviour. And those “bad” people are either calm down after stirring the waves or go away anyway. Having abilities to ban is power, and power should be exercised with caution. Some people like authority, some people don't. If you want to have both you have to find really fine balance, which is not always easy. Banning however is a one-sided approach. This is why ignore is so much better. Instead of playing mother when some whiny member does not like another member, you can tell the whiny member to just switch on the ignore and be done with it. There is no point to make a big deal out of that, really.

[][]You can still see their quotes posted by other users [/]

But the quotes are part of another user's post! You want to censor another user's post becuase of an ignored user? Leaving aside the issue that technically it would be difficult to do so. [/]

The quotes are quotes, they belong to the one who wrote them and not the one that copied what the other one wrote. I don't think it is techically difficult to do this. You can attach user ID to every quote before you put it in the database and do the display:none; on it to make it invisible.