I used to help run an X-Men rpg. Now I just made my own Justice league.

Anyway on our X-Men site we ended up shutting down and starting over just because of one guy.

He used to be mod, and a fairly good one at first. But we gave him control over the accepting/denying applications. After a month he became some power hungry a-hole. He would accept the people he like, even if their app needed help. And if he didn't like some people, he wouldn't accept their aps. Even if those were prefect!

We had to have a few sit downs with him. Considered taking away his moderation position when he went crazy. He started spaming and killing characters at will. It was out of hand within 1 day.

So all the admins got together and decided to ban him. Premently. It wasn't an easy choice, some of us liked him.


Then the problem arose. He would go make a new e-mail every five minutes. He would join under and new name and e-mail. We banned him over and over and over till no admins or mods were playing and the site became chaos.

We didn't know what exactly to do anymore. Note I was only a mod.

The admins chose to close the board and start agin. Losing valuable player. Threads were gone, characters were gone. Started completely over with the same plot. it was hell. Eventually I left too.



Now I'm running my own board which hasn't gotten off it's feet yet. I think back to that dreaded person and ask. What should I do if someone won't take a banning seriously and stay away?

You can always ban the IP address.

Other than that... I don't know what else you could do. Just keep deleting I guess, quietly move location. But, that I don't think that happens to that extreme too often.

Quick question. How do you ban on IP adress. We only knew how to ban e-mail adresses.

As an admin, I believe with most, if not all forum formats, you are able to see the IP address of any guest or member who posts on your forum (and maybe even some members who don't post?) and there should be a ban function in you admin CP that allows you to ban IP addresses. It's different for each format though.

What kind of forum are you using?

IF, and I've seen the IP adresses,but didn't see where to ban IP instead of adress.

If you're an admin on an IF board and can see the IP address of a problem member, what you need to do first is log into the Admin CP.

Once you're there, look under the header "Users and Groups" for a link that says "Ban Settings." One of the possibilities on the page is "Banned IP Addresses." Just paste the IP address as listed on the board, then click the "update the ban filters" button at the bottom of the page.

That should do the trick. :)

Be aware though that some people have things called 'dynamic' IP addresses, meaning that they can change. I'm not completely sure of how they work, except for the fact that these people can get around being banned. I've had an extremely similar circumstance occur within a board I moderated, where the banned users would continuously make new accounts, complete with new IP and new email.

*gasps* sorry to be the tea and sympathy gal but that sounds like a nightmare. Banning the IP address is the only way. (Though part of me is thinking that that guy has some serious time on his hands if he's spending his day doing that...)

Dynamic IP? Never heard of it. I'm still getting used to the technical side of things. Another way people who are banned can get access is through using another computer of course also.....

Yes, if they're dead set on it, they can visit the library or school and create an account there too, once all the computers they own are banned.

In my experience, the 'thrill' of the whole thing wears off after a while, and they eventually leave you alone. This happens quickly if your mod/admin team is vigilant in reading between the lines, and doing as much background checking as possible to deter them every time.

We had a banned member who made a new account and began sending creepy PMs to members...so sometimes they actually like to make themselves known, if only to get your attention. They LOVE attention...as I'm sure you're aware of. :angry:

Yeah, static IPs can shange for some people every time they log on.
I suggest moving boards - sending PMs to members who are innocent in that.

It doesn't happen to often, but when it does it really blows. I suppose it's just a chance to revamp some things. Also - if you're having a problem like that it's good to warn members before hand, so that they know to ignore anyone acting strangely and reprot it to you straight away.

Sometimes it's hard to find good help, and it's best to just do it yourself and give pwoers on boards away sparingly. Some people jsut can't take power of any type, even if they seem like generally decent people.

Unless a person is using dial-up, which is actually pretty rare now, IP banning will suffice. I've used it with success many times, including rude a-holes in our chatbox. Most chatboxes will let you get the person's ip address and you can ban them from not only using the box but viewing the board. If you have that problem again I suggest coming on here, finding someone who admins on your type of board, and have them walk you through an IP ban.