Banned members who won't take no for an answer

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Shawn Gossman

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Have you ever banned a member for whatever reason, and they kept coming back?

People can change IPs, emails, etc. to regain access to a website that has banned them.

People are really good with computing can do it for a while.

Have you ever dealt with this before? Tell us about it. What happened and what did you do about it?
 
Have you ever banned a member for whatever reason, and they kept coming back?

People can change IPs, emails, etc. to regain access to a website that has banned them.

People are really good with computing can do it for a while.

Have you ever dealt with this before? Tell us about it. What happened and what did you do about it?
@AWS 🙈
I have better things to do with my time now, LOL

I’ve also realised the importance of avoiding burning bridges - members often frequent multiple forums, and the last thing you want is to be banned from a forum for creating a lot of trouble at another under the same network of forums 🤦‍♀️ Best to build new bridges than to keep trying to mend old ones 😆

And I’ve also learnt we’re interacting with humans, not robots. Staff including site owners have feelings too.
 
And peace and harmony is more important than having to be right all the time imo ♥️
 
Not in recent times. That was a different case over 14 years ago when I ran forums on InvisionFree/Zetaboards. Eventually they give up, but it was exhausting to deal with it.
It's why I think it's super important for any established community to have a kind of duplicate member check. Usually these are add-ons and not core to the software, but they're critical in preventing members from making and remaking new registrations.
 
It's why I think it's super important for any established community to have a kind of duplicate member check. Usually these are add-ons and not core to the software, but they're critical in preventing members from making and remaking new registrations.
I believe’s Ozzy’s Sign up abuse detection adn blocking add-on is widely used these days.

No solution is 100% foolproof though for anyone reasonably tech savvy given proxies/VPNs along with tracker blockers and anti-fingerprinting solutions. All we can do is mitigate the risks. What matters in the end is behaviour I guess… if they behave, they’ll likely stay under the radar else if left undiscovered they’ll likely get banned all over again if they don’t identify themselves :P
 
What matters in the end is behaviour I guess… if they behave, they’ll likely stay under the radar else if left undiscovered they’ll likely get banned all over again if they don’t identify themselves :P
This is why it's ideal for forum admins and mods to be behavior observant.

What the way a member posts and their style, common words they use.

You can tell who the member is, as most people are bad at trying to be someone they're not.
 
This is why it's ideal for forum admins and mods to be behavior observant.

What the way a member posts and their style, common words they use.

You can tell who the member is, as most people are bad at trying to be someone they're not.
I’ve had to contact the site owner in the past due to a case of mistaken identity.
 
And they overturned it because they believed me given there were no red flags - I wasn’t using a proxy or any suspicious tools like anti-fingerprinting or or tracking blockers.

As @AWS and another site owner and admin pointed out to me ages ago, mo matter how well you hide there’ll always be red flags, even if that’s just the presence of tools used to misrepresent one’s identity.

I suppose you can combine these red flags with posting style and behaviours to form your own probabilistic conclusion.
 
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And they overturned it because they believed me given there were no red flags - I wasn’t using a proxy or any suspicious tools like anti-fingerprinting or or tracking blockers.

As @AWS and another site owner and admin pointed out to me ages ago, mo matter how well you hide there’ll always be red flags, even if that’s just the presence of tools used to misrepresent one’s identity.

I suppose you can combine these red flags with posting style and behaviours to form your own probabilistic conclusion.
And you made a turn around because of it.
 
And you made a turn around because of it.
I didn’t make a turn around because of the mistaken identity on the site you aren’t affiliated with that I speak of - I’m sorry that doesn’t make sense?
 
Oh maybe your post does make sense - I made a turn around after some of your staff pointed out that staff have tools to verify red flags even if the identity itself can’t be verified. I won’t embarrass my previously “smartarse” self further >_<

And the overturning of a ban made wrongly on another site you aren’t affiliated with.

So, the fact is they can verify or at the very least make an educated guess as to whether I’m guilty or innocent of abusing multiple accounts. So no point in such foolishness
 
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I do not open second accounts on any forum. Only one account and that's it. I got temporary bans from some forums (mainly for posting on wrong categories..) when I started my forum journey very long time ago. But I respected the banned period.

About members on my forum, I haven't banned anyone as of now. But It's a constant work about multiple accounts per user. I know by behavior that there are members with more than one account, but nothing conclusive to affirm it (yet).

What I try to do is to make it expensive to get a second account or to keep more than one account. And that is working.
The credits or bonuses "pay per word" through out the year (meant to be paid at the end of the year) creates value on their account.
By opening a second account, they put at risk the bonuses for the other account. And this is working incredibly well.
 
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It's why I think it's super important for any established community to have a kind of duplicate member check. Usually these are add-ons and not core to the software, but they're critical in preventing members from making and remaking new registrations.
What are good ones you recommend for XenForo?
 
What are good ones you recommend for XenForo?
Sign up abuse detection and blocking is a common one i vaguely recall @Cedric mentioned???

While I am aware of the approach as I explained above I don’t know exactly what add-ons and tools were used, but I can tell you the tools used against me, back in the day when i used to play games and abuse “anonymity” tools for multiple accounts on the tech sites owned by @AWS , were effective in defeating me (and so yes, i made a turnaround as @AWS cited :P ) So @AWS should have some handy tips on “pixels” and detection of proxies/VPNs and other red flags like anti tracking add ons🙂

Why do you ask this question @Shawn Gossman ? Are you dealing with any pests rn? If you’re open to sharing do spill :P
 
I don’t pull such time wasting tricks anymore so dw, I’m no longer the one to cause that “bit of drama” 😆
That's good :)

Starting drama just doesn't really go anywhere, you know.

That's what social media and YouTube comments are for :P
 
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