I was wrongly banned from a site using vBulletin

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  • rnmcd
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2004
    • 1610
    • 3.5.x

    I was wrongly banned from a site using vBulletin

    I was a longtime member but had posted only 3 or 4 times.

    Yesterday I sent a PM with a link in it to a user. I then sent another PM to a different user with a link in it.

    No where did i say links weren't permitted. The reason I sent two seperate PMs was because they only allowed one recipient per PM.

    I was then banned forever--a screen appeared that said "You are banned forever for being a spammer."

    No big deal really, I was mostly reading posts and looking at pictures about animation. Which I can still do as a guest.

    What setting/mod did they have that did this? It needs some tweaking or at least some human intervention.
  • Floris
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2001
    • 37767

    #2
    Sounds like the user(s) reported you for sending unsolicited messages. They probably considered it to be spam. Some forums are more strict with this then others. The admin of a site is free to allow/block access to anybody they want. It's their site

    Comment

    • rnmcd
      Senior Member
      • Aug 2004
      • 1610
      • 3.5.x

      #3
      I don't think it was a user that reported me because the users weren't on at the time and my ban was almost immediate. When I clicked send/submit for the PM the next screen said I was permanently banned for spamming.

      My greater interest is how they have their forum set up to do that. I would like to use the same process EXCEPT instead of automatically banning the member, a mod gets notified and the mod can determine if it is a legitimate reason to ban.

      Comment

      • T.S.
        Member
        • Apr 2006
        • 87

        #4
        Click the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of their forum and explain what happened. Maybe they have some auto spam detection hack that banned you for sending multiple private messages with links in them in a cetain amount of time.

        Comment

        • AWS
          Senior Member
          • Apr 2000
          • 1830
          • 5.2.x

          #5
          Lets see. You posted to the forum 3 or 4 times. You tried to send multiple PMs, but, could only send one at a time. These PMs contained links. After the second you were banned. I ban users that do the same thing. Whether you know it or not what you were doing, attempting to PM a link to multiple recipients, is spam. I would have banned you after the first one. Many people sign up to forums and rarely post only to come back later and spam. You got what you deserved.
          Admins Zone - Resources for Forum Administrators

          Comment

          • rnmcd
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2004
            • 1610
            • 3.5.x

            #6
            Originally posted by AWS
            Lets see. You posted to the forum 3 or 4 times. You tried to send multiple PMs, but, could only send one at a time. These PMs contained links. After the second you were banned. I ban users that do the same thing. Whether you know it or not what you were doing, attempting to PM a link to multiple recipients, is spam. I would have banned you after the first one. Many people sign up to forums and rarely post only to come back later and spam. You got what you deserved.
            First of all mullet, the people I tried to PM had profiles that said to contact them for design work (they were artists). I sent a PM to them with a link to a logo contest I am running on a website and a link to a .jpg of an avatar I want someone to work on.

            Comment

            • Joe Gronlund
              Senior Member
              • Nov 2001
              • 5789
              • 3.8.x

              #7
              LOL, "you are banned forever" Classic

              Sorry to hear, i guess they dont like URL's much there..
              MCSE, MVP, CCIE
              Microsoft Beta Team

              Comment

              • rnmcd
                Senior Member
                • Aug 2004
                • 1610
                • 3.5.x

                #8
                Isn't there a way they could have banned URLs by removing the Insert Link icon or mentioned it in their 'terms' or 'rules and regulations'? They allow URLs in the forums but, apparently not, in PMs. Oh well.

                Like I said, I'm not so much concerned that I was banned as I am interested in figuring out how they 'automated' the ban. With a tweak or two I would love to do it on one of my boards.

                Comment

                • chrispadfield
                  Senior Member
                  • Aug 2000
                  • 5366

                  #9
                  First of all mullet, the people I tried to PM had profiles that said to contact them for design work (they were artists). I sent a PM to them with a link to a logo contest I am running on a website and a link to a .jpg of an avatar I want someone to work on.
                  If you are offensive to people here you can add vbulletin.com to the places you will be banned from.
                  Christopher Padfield
                  Web Based Helpdesk
                  DeskPRO v3.0.3 Released - Download Demo Now!

                  Comment

                  • jeffinj
                    Senior Member
                    • Apr 2006
                    • 841
                    • 4.0.0

                    #10
                    No one has become offensive here. Please let us not criticise anyone and let us stay on the topic.

                    Ok so... uhmm.. ?! I forgot!
                    www.christianforumsite.com
                    sigpic

                    Comment

                    • Joe Gronlund
                      Senior Member
                      • Nov 2001
                      • 5789
                      • 3.8.x

                      #11
                      Mullet?? What the hell?

                      No wonder you ended up getting banned..
                      MCSE, MVP, CCIE
                      Microsoft Beta Team

                      Comment

                      • Chousho
                        Senior Member
                        • Jan 2004
                        • 967
                        • 3.8.x

                        #12
                        Originally posted by rnmcd
                        First of all mullet
                        It's a good thing I wasn't drinking milk when I read that. I'd need a new keyboard, hahaha.

                        As far as forums go, any code to do that would have to be based off of VBulletin, as in a 3rd party mod; so no official stuff. I'm sure there are hacks around to do this, but I have no use or knowledge of them yet.

                        In regards to your banning: are we hearing the whole story? I've never heard of someone getting insta-banned as soon as they send a PM without a complaint from the receiver. At any rate, I'm not sure why you didn't just use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of whatever forum that was if you feel your ban was unjust.
                        Last edited by Chousho; Wed 10 Jan '07, 6:32am.

                        Comment

                        • rnmcd
                          Senior Member
                          • Aug 2004
                          • 1610
                          • 3.5.x

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Chousho
                          It's a good thing I wasn't drinking milk when I read that. I'd need a new keyboard, hahaha.

                          As far as forums go, any code to do that would have to be based off of VBulletin, as in a 3rd party mod; so no official stuff. I'm sure there are hacks around to do this, but I have no use or knowledge of them yet.

                          In regards to your banning: are we hearing the whole story? I've never heard of someone getting insta-banned as soon as they send a PM without a complaint from the receiver. At any rate, I'm not sure why you didn't just use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of whatever forum that was if you feel your ban was unjust.
                          As I said before, I have been a member for a long time and I hardly ever post on the site.

                          Even though I'm dumb, IF I was to spam I would find a better way to do it than one PM to one user every 120 seconds. That's how they had it set up.

                          I could contact them but there's no point in it. I could also reregister but there's no point to it. A guest/visitor can look at all the posts and profiles.

                          It seems odd how they have their 'spam prevention controls' set up on the site--they don't require email activation nor image verification at registration but they ban forever after the second URL sent via PM.

                          I'm not leaving anything out of the story except that this morning I received an email from one of the users I PM'd. They told me their cost to do some graphics work for me.

                          Someone PM'd me a link to a mod on vbulletin.org that they said has the settings to create this type of ban. With some tweaks I think I would like to use it on my sites.

                          Comment

                          • Joe Gronlund
                            Senior Member
                            • Nov 2001
                            • 5789
                            • 3.8.x

                            #14
                            Originally posted by rnmcd

                            It seems odd how they have their 'spam prevention controls' set up on the site--they don't require email activation nor image verification at registration but they ban forever after the second URL sent via PM.
                            What exactly was this URL? If its not forum public appropiate, please dont post it..
                            MCSE, MVP, CCIE
                            Microsoft Beta Team

                            Comment

                            • jeffinj
                              Senior Member
                              • Apr 2006
                              • 841
                              • 4.0.0

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Joe Gronlund
                              If its not forum public appropiate, please dont post it..
                              We dont want you to get banned!!
                              www.christianforumsite.com
                              sigpic

                              Comment

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