Ban factors

[writespeak]

At some forums, once members are banned, they're banned forever. At other forums, they may be unbanned at some point afterwards, depending on various factors. A comparison of factors leading to and from bans could be interesting.

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In what situations do you ban members immediately?

When members are banned after several steps lead to their banning, what are those steps?

What do you communicate to banned members at the time of banning?

Are some or all bans timed, e.g., with warning points that expire after X days?

Do you ever unban members that the system has banned permanently? If so, what factors do you consider when deciding to unban them?

If you unban members, do you have an intermediate group to place them in before returning their full privileges?

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If the answers to the above questions would be considered confidential information at your forum, please don't answer them here, of course. I'm looking for the type of information that would be available to members at your forum.

Thanks!

Lois

[Lurker]

At one forum that I mod at, it is generally ban for life. Usually drive by spammers who's sole purpose to join the forum was to advertise. This forum only has one advertising category and for that you have to pay. Over the years we have allowed a select few back, but it isn't common. The forum has been run that way since long before I knew what a forum was :)