# Thread for banned posters? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 2, 2020, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090 "2020-08-02T15:07:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/41 "2020-08-02T19:35:22Z")
Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll continue to have to contact a mod if you want to know why a poster has been banned if there hasn’t been an announcement. However, you can assume that it’s for trolling or socking. We will continue to post notices for suspensions and bannings of posters for repeated warnings. Once again, I’ll state we are still working out procedures on Discourse to deal with these things. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/42 "2020-08-02T19:55:25Z")
Wow. 48065 banned! I wonder how many were socks, trolls, or spammers… I have somehow reached trust level 3. Reasons for banning are above my paygrade, too. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/43 "2020-08-02T19:57:23Z")
I believe it, what with the times we’ve had waves of spammers flooding the place. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/44 "2020-08-02T20:09:17Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > Wow. 48065 banned! I wonder how many were socks, trolls, or spammers… We ban maybe 10-20 regular posters a year, so maybe a few hundred in the entire history of the board. So 99% of the banned are spammers, socks, and trolls. The vast majority of those are spammers. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/45 "2020-08-02T22:25:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Assuming you’re on a PC not a phone or tablet … This works on an iPad ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/46 "2020-08-03T06:32:00Z")
I don’t remember you being upset when **Huey Freeman** was banned for the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/47 "2020-08-03T07:37:34Z")
…he was actually 🙂 Octopus argued passionately in Huey’s defense. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/48 "2020-08-03T07:42:37Z")
Huh. Missed that. My apologies, then, **octopus**. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/49 "2020-08-03T12:31:51Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > We ban maybe 10-20 regular posters a year, so maybe a few hundred in the entire history of the board. So 99% of the banned are spammers, socks, and trolls. The vast majority of those are spammers. Going a bit off-topic, but I haven’t seen a single bit of spam here yet. Have the usual suspects there found the new board yet? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/50 "2020-08-03T12:38:36Z")
We’re getting plenty of spam, so yes, the usual suspects have found the new board. The difference is with vBulletin if you reported a spam, it remained visible until a moderator nuked it, where on Discourse, the spam is hidden as soon as someone flags it as spam. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/51 "2020-08-03T12:47:46Z")
Since the URL didn’t change, the new SDMB wasn’t hard to “find”. Besides, I hear them spammers got some of them new-fangled computer thingies that can cover a lot of internet ground in a big hurry. The stinkin’ bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/52 "2020-08-03T13:09:46Z")
Part of the goal of the move to Discourse was to make the board easier to find for new users. Unfortunately, if that works (I don’t have access to the numbers to say whether it has, and it might take more time anyway), it also makes us more visible to spammers. But that’s a tradeoff we’ll take. We also see a number of posts that the Discourse software is automatically flagging as spam, which then must be verified by a human moderator. It’s pretty good at it: So far since the move, I’ve only seen one of these auto-flagged posts that was not in fact spam. It’s hard to say whether Discourse is better or worse than vBulletin at this, because vBulletin also automatically blocked some spammers, but most of the ones vBulletin auto-blocked, it never asked the humans for confirmation, so I don’t know how many there were (there’s probably a log of that kept somewhere, but if so, I don’t think ordinary moderators had access to it). Of the ones that do get through the automated defenses and get reported by human users, my impression is that there’s a bit less spam than there was before, but I haven’t been keeping hard numbers on that. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/53 "2020-08-03T14:00:45Z")
vBulletin also asked for human confirmation, but it wasn’t in with the normal post reports and such. You had to know where to look for it in the old Mod Control Panel. I used to go through the spam filter every morning and I would check it periodically during the day. The Discourse system is much easier to use, and I have noticed that Discourse does detect a couple of things that vBulletin didn’t (which I am not going to go into detail about in public because I don’t want to make things easier for spammers). ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/54 "2020-08-03T16:31:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Part of the goal of the move to Discourse was to make the board easier to find for new users. Unfortunately, if that works (I don’t have access to the numbers to say whether it has, and it might take more time anyway), it also makes us more visible to spammers. But that’s a tradeoff we’ll take. I can say that I’ve seen the SDMB come up in Google searches after the change. I hadn’t had that happen in a couple of years without restricting the engine to the site, myself. Data point of one, and all that. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/55 "2020-08-03T16:46:08Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I can say that I’ve seen the SDMB come up in Google searches after the change. IME, specifying site:straightdope.com works now – links to old [straightdope.com/sdmb](http://straightdope.com/sdmb) threads properly redirect to the current addresses. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/56 "2020-08-04T01:53:51Z")
Try this one out for size: [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=882607](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=882607) vs [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-impeachment-inquiry/840771](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-impeachment-inquiry/840771) ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/57 "2020-08-04T02:30:39Z")
Try “Trump Impeachment Inquiry” site:straightdope.com; AFAICT, all links except the first point to somewhere in the Discourse thread. Same for “trump Impeachment Inquiry” “straight dope”. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/58 "2020-08-04T02:42:45Z")
I used [this search query](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Astraightdope.com%20%22The%20Trump%20Impeachment%20Inquiry%22) and the first result is [this Google search result](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj61JHTwoDrAhUJMawKHesGC-4QFjAAegQIAhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fboards.straightdope.com%2Fsdmb%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D882607%26page%3D102&usg=AOvVaw2_t2ex-t5xccitCP-WFyOZ), which redirects to [this link](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=882607&page=102), which is basically Discourse's error HTTP 404. > [@Skywatcher](#): > > all links except the first ETA: Sorry, I missed that the first time around. Yes, only the first one still fails. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/59 "2020-08-04T21:34:39Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > on Discourse, the spam is hidden as soon as someone flags it as spam. I don’t think so. I reported some spam within the last 24 hours. It was still there a while later. Wouldn’t a system that immediately hides a post be open to abuse, or to mistake? I’ve seen a few cases where a posted link was incorrectly reported as spam, when the poster was merely not communicating their point clearly. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090/60 "2020-08-04T22:10:37Z")
I believe the spam gets hidden only if the flagger has reached trust level 3. > **[Understanding Discourse Trust Levels](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels/)** > > The user trust system is a fundamental cornerstone of Discourse. Trust levels are a way of… > [@](#): > > Users at trust level 3 can… > > Recategorize and rename topics > > Access a secure category only visible to users at trust level 3 and higher > > Have all their links followed (we remove automatic nofollow) > > **TL3 spam flags cast on TL0 user posts immediately hide the post** > > **TL3 flags cast on TL0 user posts in sufficient diversity will auto-silence the user and hide all their posts** > [etc] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thread-for-banned-posters/917090.md?page=4)