Why do members who leave AO have their status to be "banned". Couldn't it be something more "friendly" like "gone for good" or something ?. Why don't we just leave the "banned" status to the trolls ?. Just my thoughts ...
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Why do members who leave AO have their status to be "banned". Couldn't it be something more "friendly" like "gone for good" or something ?. Why don't we just leave the "banned" status to the trolls ?. Just my thoughts ...
Interesting question, however I do know that usually it's the member's request.
cheers
probably find that 'banned' is a default setting
any other status would require a 'hack'
and the site has had enough troubles with those thank you very much :D
Foxy: well ... how about this simple solution?. Replace the avatar with a suitcase (i.e if its possible ). :-)
Relyt: Good for you old chap ! ;-)
Cheers
The user's request is to be seen as banned? That sounds a bit strange. I agree, if they're not banned it's not a great status to have under their nick. There should be a way to put a custom setting there.
There is indeed no way to distinguish between a member who was banned for
"bad behavior" and one who was banned upon request - for the simple reason that us moderators cannot make that distinction. That being said, those members who were banned upon request could have simply not showed up anymore; for some reason or another, though, they requested to be physically banned. It's like having a group of friends, and you grow tired of them: one way to deal with it is to simply not meet up with your friends anymore, and ignore their messages; another is to wear a big sign around your neck that says "I don't want to be your friend anymore", and request that your friends start kicking your @ss upon seeing you. The first option, apparently, has been too difficult for some, so they went with the second option.
foxy in that regard is dead on: banning is the only option we have to prevent accounts from posting.
If you really need us to prevent you from posting, you have problems other than having "Banned" show up under your name ;)
But if someone simply doesn't want to be here any more and doesn't want to be part of the forum, why do they need preventing from posting in the first place?
You said that yourself in the last sentence Negative, just after you remarked that banning was the only option to prevent accounts from posting. I still don't see why accounts that haven't been banned for a reason need the "banned" label. Is it not possible to put a custom label there for someone who disppeared voluntarily for whatever reason, and a banned label for someone who needed preventing from posting?
If that isn't possible, then can you not deactivate an account rather than remove it? Or just leave it - if whoever it is doesn't want to be here they'll soon disappear under a pile of new posts and new members.
You'll need to ask them. I think you're seriously misinterpreting what I said. If they don't want to be here anymore, they could simply not show up anymore; for some reason or another, though (and you'll again have to ask them), some people want us to prevent them from posting here. The only way to do that is by banning them. I didn't say we want to prevent them from posting here; I said that some want us to prevent them from posting.Quote:
But if someone simply doesn't want to be here any more and doesn't want to be part of the forum, why do they need preventing from posting in the first place?
I say what you originally said then - if someone needs to be physically prevented from posting here, then maybe they should begin to address the problem at its source, ie get some psychiatric treatment for their compulsive-posting disorder! After all, we could ban them but if they were that addicted to forum posting, they would simply re-register with a new nick, browse the forum with a proxy, and you'd never be done! The effort of blocking these tactics might be time worth spent on a member whose posts were in some way offensive or troublemaking, but for someone who hadn't done anything wrong? I doubt it - why is it AO's problem?
Hi Moira, and a happy New Year to you and yours:)
I guess the problem here is that we don't have a "retired", "resigned" or whatever category?
Then again, some asked to be banned and come back to post anyway.
You are looking at a case of that as you read this.
...several times.
Some people get so attached to a place they don't think they can leave on their own accord...like a relationship...so they request to be banned to give them that push out the door.
It's virtually the same reason why some members continue to come back repeatedly after being banned...and consequently need to be banned several times before they can move on.
People build emotional attachments to things...ever break something then get mad or upset over it? It's human nature.
So..some people request that little extra push out the door...but that doesn't necessarily mean they have mental problems...just attachment issues.
If the qualifying factor of mental illness is attachment then people who get attached to products/objects and upset because they broke their watch or lost the keys to their car are by the same measure more mentally disabled than those who get attached to communities...online or not.
On one hand it's sad that people get so attached they need that push...on the other hand...
we all get attached to things...from pens to books to flags to communities to people...
some things just get so entrenched as a part of our lives ( even things like a relic on a mantle piece that falls and gets broken ) that it becomes odd to no longer see it sitting there where it used to...
it's really just human nature. ;)
To be honest, I never really paid much attention to it. Even if someone has "banned" for a title, I'll still read what they have to say. And if they're not posting anymore, I don't think it really matters.
Also, if I'm that determined to figure out if someone was banned because of idiotic posts, I'll go into their profile and view their posts.
Shagdevil: I was suggesting something that would make your life easier... Save a few clicks :-). After all, this is the place where you can suggest things for improving AO.
If accounts are simply deleted, what does it show? I can understand somebody might, on some principle, want to have their account removed and it's a pity if that does show "banned", but in my experience that action looks entirely different to an account where the username, IP or email address has been added to bans.
Oh for goodness sake! What are we, some sort of counselling organisation ?!? This is a forum.Quote:
People build emotional attachments to things...ever break something then get mad or upset over it? It's human nature.
No, it sets all their posts to "guest" but we don't delete accounts.
Err ... why not? Perhaps this would be a solution to the problem of people who want to be forcibly restrained from posting (LOL) and that other group of marginals who have to be forcilby restrained from posting, ie banned members.
It adversely affects our business interests, and it also makes it impossible to search posts on any previous member, because they'll all be attributed to guest.
I suppose that's the problem isn't it? There is a solution but it isn't one that works with the way you want the site to operate (which is fair enough).
It looks like people will either have to be banned or have a custom label if they've asked for it themselves. I can more understand now why people ask to be banned if removing accounts isn't an option for them - but I still think if it was me, on balance I'd rather remain and just not post. Acquring a "banned" label isn't quite making the dignified exit they probably had in mind.
It's pretty rare that a member actually asks to be banned anyway. Generally if someone wants to leave a forum, they just stop showing up. The "please ban my account" histrionics smacks of "drama queen" behavior, to me.
I mean what is our motivation in banning them, if we're not the ones who want them gone? We just publish a bunch of forums, we're not their parents blocking adult cable tv channels on them.
That's exactly what I think. Have some points :) except that as an admin it won't make a scrap of difference because they don't show.
Thank you. I do me best :)
Moira...I was responding to the remarks made about these people having mental problems...remarks you and Neg made specifically...Quote:
Oh for goodness sake! What are we, some sort of counselling organisation ?!? This is a forum.
Maybe it's just me but does anyone really care why someone left? I mean, the point here is to engage in security conversations with those who are actually present and contributing right?
There are sooooo many more important things to work on within this site. Splitting hairs over user ban status is a waste of resources IMHO.
--TH13
Agreed.
OK...maybe I went a little over the top in my sarcasm :D ...but...I wanted to fully illustrate my point. ;)
LOL, agreed :D
It could be that when a member is banned their posts are not able to be seen by search engines since they are hidden. But that could just be a guess.
PacketThirst - I wasn't picking on this thread. My apologies if I came across that way. I was just voicing my personal views on the matter. :)
Banned users posts are no longer hidden. That was counterproductive too. Sometimes a user may have had worthwhile posts that contributed to the forum, and then for 1 reason or another was banned later. Why hide all their posts? This isn't just a forum it's also a searchable knowledge base.
I honestly don't know why people want their accounts closed, I would just vanish :confused:
However I will make the point that once you have joined and posted the links must remain intact................ relational databases are very unforgiving in that respect ;)
Yes, that, and it can really mess up the flow of discussions.
Exactly. I also serves a purpose - that is, letting current or new members know what is and what is not an acceptable post. If a post is really out of order then the individual post can always be deleted.
Well generally the posts that get someone banned are removed. But if they have other posts that are considered to be fine, then they're left on the forum. 99% of all the banned users across our 30 forums are spammers. I ban 10 or 12 per day on all of our 30 forums, or rather, intercept that many. I get an email when new members signup. very often I can spot a spammer before they post, and I don't give them the chance to.
Spammers are a right nuisence. I'd say 70% of the guestbook comments I get are spam, but because they're hosted on the guestbook server, SEVENtwentyfour can't routinely pick them up and do anything about them. Once my subscription runs out I doubt I'll renew it unless the can find a way of addressing the problem.
Well the 1st step is the CAPCHA system (image verification). that will eliminate most bots, unless of course a human registers them (or they buy HUGELY expensive image-text recognition software). I've just implemented it on the contact us links on all our forums, and it's stopped the spamming via that link, dead in it's tracks. I haven't gotten a single one, since.
Oh yes, the basic image verification is there ... but this doesn't stop these tenacious guestbook posters. If the site checkers could run bots over the guestbook in the way they do the site, it would be easily controlled - but they can't of course.
Ah so you have a problem with the career spammers as we do on our forums. Well I dunno who is spamming you obviously, but on our forums 98% of the spam comes from India, Nigeria, Russia and China. If that traffic isn't important to you, you can block entire nations and reduce the spam immeasurably. We can't do that, however.
JPnyc I suppose it might be possible to block entire nations with a php script so they didn't see the link to the guestbook from the site, but I don't know how I'd go about it. I do know how to block IP addresses but not how to tie them up with nationalities or whether a similar php script could be used to block domains.
There's no way to block stuff on the guestbook at all - that would take their cooperation and at the moment it's open to anyone. All I can do is be notified immediately there's a post and delete it if it turns out to be spam.
I think you can do it with .htaccess
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/77619