How do I effectively ban a user?

[JamesUS]

How do I effectively ban a user?


The best way is to ban both his IP address and his email address in the Options area of the control panel.
If the member uses a dynamic IP address (ie it changes every time he logs on) then you will have to either ban each IP he uses, or ban the whole subnet (eg 1.2.3.*).

[Fred]

You can NEVER fully ban someone. If you ban his ISP, then you ban other members too.

[Jux]

I had the same problem - apparently, when I banned the email, they were still able to post, so I checked on that as well as took away all of their forum rights under their permissions. He had an IP that changed, but I think we were able to resolve the banning issue.

[Cassius]

you can't really limit some person's entrance to your forum unless you close the registration... if there is a way for someone to register, the average persistant cyber vandal will try to use it...

[Sven]

Another, quite effective, way to get rid of someone:
Set him to Usergroup "COPPA User awaiting email confirmation" :D

He won't be able to post and will have a little trouble to register with a new nickname ;)

This is, of course, not a ban and won't prevent someone who really wants to disturb your forums - but it's working good for us.

[Rob Weaver]

We have a persistent user who kept changing his hotmail address each time I banned him. Finally, I banned his IP address and that kept him out for a few weeks. Now he's back and claims to have an "IP blocking" program which allegedly prevents the vBulletin software from "seeing" the real IP he's coming from and thus letting him in.

I thought of setting his permissions to prevent him writing to each forum but that won't help if he can get in again under a new name/address etc.

Any ideas?

[Steve Machol]

You're only real option is to ban the free email accounts, i.e., hotmail.com, yahoo.com, etc. After a while he'll get tired and will go away.

[Rob Weaver]

Yes, my original intention to was ban free accounts - until I discovered that nearly 80 per cent of our club's supporters use hotmail.

[Steve Machol]

You could always use this as a temporary ban until the moron tires and goes to play in someone else's sandbox. It's either that or continue banning each new email address he uses to register with.

[Rob Weaver]

Smachol - You've given me an idea. If I were to ban hotmail addresses it would not affect those already signed on, would it?

[Steve Machol]

No, it won't affect current members - just any new registrations.

[Rob Weaver]

Thanks.

[grace819]

Originally posted by smachol
You're only real option is to ban the free email accounts, i.e., hotmail.com, yahoo.com, etc. After a while he'll get tired and will go away.

Sorry to sound so dumb but can you please show me how to do this? A detailed instruction would be nice. :D

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by grace819
Sorry to sound so dumb but can you please show me how to do this? A detailed instruction would be nice. :D Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Banning Options -> Email addresses to ban -> yahoo.com hotmail.com

[grace819]

Originally posted by smachol
Admin CP -> vBulletin Options -> Banning Options -> Email addresses to ban -> yahoo.com hotmail.com

Thank you. :)

[Marshalus]

Originally posted by smachol
No, it won't affect current members - just any new registrations.

And anyone who changes their e-mail address settings, correct?

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by Marshalus
And anyone who changes their e-mail address settings, correct? Yes.

[Roody]

Originally posted by smachol
No, it won't affect current members - just any new registrations.

i actually asked this question in another forum in here smachol, but is this true also if you set "allow user to keep banned email" to No?

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by Roody
i actually asked this question in another forum in here smachol, but is this true also if you set "allow user to keep banned email" to No? Yes, I should have made that clear. It's up to the Admin. I assumed that you asked this because you didn't want it to affect current members.

[Roody]

yeah i dont want it to affect current members, but I want the feature "Allow users to keep banned email" set to no.

[Katana Myronson]

IMHO, The best way to keep someone out is to moderate the new user registrations, and run ip checks with the user, and emails, but still ban the free email accounts. And there is a way from keeping vBulletin from seeing your true ip address, its called a proxy server, and the most common one is someone useing AOL.

[Aaron Freed]

Rather unfortunately, even moderating new registrations doesn't prevent all the trouble. I had some life-lacking loser write a script to keep registering new accounts until the forums went down for a few weeks, just to smite everyone because we wouldn't let him back in. After that, I had to disable registrations altogether, and I'm only making new accounts via request for people I know I can trust. Sucks, doesn't it? Yeah (http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=63974).

[Zelda-King]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned reporting trouble makers to their Internet Service Provider.

[poolking]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned reporting trouble makers to their Internet Service Provider.

Because most ISPs never do anything about troublemakers.

[Equ1n0x]

Moderate new members, if you have the time.

Alternatively ring up his/her parents ;)

Failing that the ISP does sometimes take action, unfortunately it depends on the effect/how responsible the isp is :\

[Babylon]

The way that worked best for me was to grab the usergroup ids of 'banned' usergroups and stop them from being able to logout. Before i did this my banned users would just logout and create a new account when they were banned.

It's worked pretty well. For a while we also approved new registrations which solved a lot of problems too :)

Obviously the users need to be using cookies but they all were and luckily didn't know how to clear them by hand :D

[Zelda-King]

I would think they are obliged to by law if you can show them logs. We've never had trouble getting ISPs to intervene. Not that I've had more than like... two experiences with that on any board.

I KNOW that my own ISP wouldn't tolerate such behaviour as screwing up forums.

[Cloud Strife]

Ive found the best way is by threatning them with legal jagon... that usually does the trick for the not so law minded people, they usually leave... The other people I havent figured out yet :(

Cloud

[mjames]

IMHO, The best way to keep someone out is to moderate the new user registrations, and run ip checks with the user, and emails, but still ban the free email accounts. And there is a way from keeping vBulletin from seeing your true ip address, its called a proxy server, and the most common one is someone useing AOL.
I agree ... how do you moderate new registrations? I can't seem to find it in the CP.

[Steve Machol]

This is a setting in the 'User and registration options' section of vBulletin Options.

[maestrosdelweb]

Wich are the new options to ban a user in vbulletin 3?

[Michelle69]

Wich are the new options to ban a user in vbulletin 3?Pretty much the same really. Ban by IP or email, and they've added a "Tachy Goes to Coventry" option ("This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads... ")

I've banned people right from .htaccess (unless they're on AOL then you're SOL). Alternatively, you might want to search vb.org for something called "Miserable Users" lol :D

[Nemesis2000]

I didnt have time to implement it before I took my old forum down, but my friend in my sig and I coded a nice member application system. Its not infallable since trolls could still accidentally be let in, but hey, at least they cant reregister right away with the system me and my friend built. We built this in as another option in addition to closing the registration, and the open registration method vbulletin uses.

It deals with members applying for membership, and you can either accept or deny them. Its pretty easy to spot whos good and who isnt. If you get things right with your members, no troll will ever enter, and if they do, its an easy oust.

Regularly prune your members list. Accounts with 0 posts after like a month need to be wiped. Good precaution.;)

[maestrosdelweb]

Pretty much the same really. Ban by IP or email, and they've added a "Tachy Goes to Coventry" option ("This option allows you to effectively add a user or users to every member's 'Ignore List'. However, users in this list can still see their own posts and threads... ")

I've banned people right from .htaccess (unless they're on AOL then you're SOL). Alternatively, you might want to search vb.org for something called "Miserable Users" lol :D
The miserable users was a great tool. Thanks for the tip.

[Zzed]

I have come up with several ways of banning people from my fourms. I have also creatd other varieties of the miserable hack. :D

I have come up with a trapping mechanism to recognize banned members based on some of their personal info on the board. Although there is no 100% fool proof method of banning a user. I have been mostly successful with keeping the unwanted members out of my forums. ;)

I have discovered that by making a user's stay on your board "less than pleasant", will entice tha user to leave on his own. ;)

[djnoz]

The "Miserable User" hack is by far the best way of "banning" annoying members. It's a shame we can't install it on our board... we're running vb3

[Zzed]

The "Miserable User" hack is by far the best way of "banning" annoying members. It's a shame we can't install it on our board... we're running vb3
I'll port it to VB3 in the near future. ;)

[Kasushi]

Like michelle said, the miserable users hack is a fun one to have. You can also stop them being able to log out and then ban them but i'm not sure on how that works.

[Aaron Freed]

I've honestly found that putting registrations on moderation is a pretty effective banning tool, really. The only problem is that it makes it more difficult for people to register, but meh.

[Rob Weaver]

I've looked at the 'miserable users' hack and reckon whatever solution we arrive at, I'd like to install that, too. I fell about laughing for 15 minutes after reading the author's description of what it does. Dia-bloody-bolical!

[achtungbaby]

How effective is banning members/visitors who visit through a proxy?

[Z28.com]

I use to have this guy who was real persistant on reregistering. I tried banning his IP, email, free email host everthing. This went on for several months. He would bash other members about anything.

I finally started playing his game. I erased every post he mad as soon as I found them. Then I started to alter his profile, avatar, signature. I turned the tables on him. He would login invisible to hide from everyone, I would make him visible. I guess he got tired of the torture from us and left cause he hasnt been back in about 6 months:D

[Cassius]

The way that worked best for me was to grab the usergroup ids of 'banned' usergroups and stop them from being able to logout. Before i did this my banned users would just logout and create a new account when they were banned.

It's worked pretty well. For a while we also approved new registrations which solved a lot of problems too :)

Obviously the users need to be using cookies but they all were and luckily didn't know how to clear them by hand :D

uhm... where is this option? I can´t find it anywhere! (vb 3.0.1)

thanks