Software mechanics on Suspensions and Banning

About This Message Board
1

This is NOT a question about individuals, nor is it complaints who on got banned, who got suspended . . . yadda who yadda why yadda whatever.

I’m curious on how the suspensions and bans work. Does the software simply lock out the login credentials of the account, or does it block the IP address? In the case of the former, couldn’t someone just open up a new account and carry on? In the latter, if someone goes on vacation/out-of-state/intergalactic trip, could they log into their account from a different physical location?

This is solely out of curiosity. I do not need an answer fast.

Tripler
If a mod will kindly check my “permanent record,” they’ll see it’s clean.

2

When someone is banned or suspended, they get moved into either the “banned” or the “suspended” user group. When they try to access the SDMB, they will get a message that they have been banned/suspended along with the reason why and the date that the ban/suspension will be lifted (if banned, it’s usually “never”).

If the ban/suspension is not permanent, then the board software will automatically lift the ban and return the user to their original user group (Charter Member, Member, Guest, etc) once the appropriate time has passed.

The IP is not automatically banned, but we can ban IP addresses if we feel that we need to.

We do not give out details in public about how we detect socks, so I will not go into detail about what works and what does not.

3

I admit - I checked.

You’re clean. So far. :dubious:

4

engineer_comp_geek, thank you! That’s pretty straightforward, and clear!

Mayhaps a bag of Cheetos might sway some slack in my favor, should I run afoul of things? [Dammit, we need an angel-halo smiley here. . .] ;):smiley:

Tripler
I look for socks at the local laundromat. That’s where they all are.

5

When you say “access” do you mean they’ve tried to log in, or does that also cover attempts to read the board without logging in? (I assume that if they used an incognito window that they could still read, yeh?)

6

If you check my record, you’ll see that I’ve kept my nose clean recently (two different warnings a few years back, for insults. And while I accept the warnings, I feel no remorse. I stand by those statements, but only to those individuals).

7

If you’re not logged in, the board doesn’t know who you are and would allow you to look around all you want.

8

Pretty much what I thought, but you know what they say about assuming.

9

If under some extreme circumstance I ever were to be banned, I’d miss the ability to subscribe to threads more than I’d miss posting.

10

A serious question: Is there any practical difference between a permanent suspension and a ban? And corollary: What would be the point of a non-permanent ban?
Pedant-in-training,
Lare

11

I don’t see much of a point behind a non-permanent ban. I won’t say that we have never done it because I’m not going to search through every ban we have ever done, but I can say that I’m not aware of any temporary bans that have ever been done.

As for suspensions, there are occasions when we will give someone a permanent suspension. Usually this means that there is no fixed time limit, but if certain conditions are met we will lift the suspension. For example, if someone is dealing with some sort of personal issue and it is causing them to misbehave on the board, sometimes we will tell them to go sort themselves out, and when they are ready they can contact us and we’ll lift the suspension.

12

Thank you.

13

Back in the early history of the board, people who were banned occasionally petitioned to be allowed back in, and some were accepted if deemed to be sincere enough. However, this almost never worked out, and they just ended up getting banned again for doing the same stuff as before.

Now there is a quite extended process involving multiple warnings before a suspension is imposed, and then additional warnings after returning from a suspension resulting in a ban. Except for some instaban cases for trolling or other severe offenses, it takes repeated bad behavior over an extended period of time to get banned. Therefore we see little point in unbanning someone once they’ve been banned.

14

So, to answer your question (thanks for thinking of me!), I cleared my cookies and was able to continue to browse the forum.

While I can’t speak for how this forum goes about detecting socks, there’s several pieces of information a board administrator will have:

    a.  Does the sock use the same email address?
    b.  Does the sock use the same IP?
    c.   Does the sock have the same browser fingerprint?
    d.  Does the sock's IP appear to be from the same geographic area?

These are technical methods. In addition, similar language and phrases used, posting in the same threads as the banned poster, and timing of the account creation are all indirect methods that are likely more reliable than the technical methods. This is because there are readily available methods to evade items a-d, though to discuss those methods would be against the board rules.

Nevertheless, to answer your curiosity, I didn’t use a sock. (or if I did, I was extremely careful and left no traces)