# What happens to banned users? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 26, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819 "2015-10-26T21:26:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/41 "2015-10-27T14:27:57Z")
Actually, they have an agreement with a post mod whereby they ship them off to a little corner of the internet where they can play all by themselves unmolested by logic and critical thinking. They even provide in-house entertainment for them with a resident marsupial. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/42 "2015-10-27T14:31:30Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > [A user getting banned.](http://www.executedtoday.com/images/Nguyen_Van_Lem.jpg) **Senegoid** , I always like your approach to posts, but that’s fucked up–the banter was going along swimmingly and then that extraordinary brutal and iconic moment. Cement shoes off a dock, maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/43 "2015-10-27T14:40:40Z")
I believe they are generally doomed to walk at night and fast all day in an overheated room. The mods don’t really let them go into it, because people get all bent out of shape and get the shivers and go bug-eyed. It’d make your hair stand on end. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/44 "2015-10-27T15:37:28Z")
Once I was having dinner with our Tubadiva and I asked her the very same question. She told me it wasn’t something moderators or admins talked about. Then she changed the subject and asked me how I was enjoying the brats. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/45 "2015-10-27T15:43:20Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > **Senegoid** , I always like your approach to posts, but that’s fucked up–the banter was going along swimmingly and then that extraordinary brutal and iconic moment. > > Cement shoes off a dock, maybe. At least he didn’t post a link to the video. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/46 "2015-10-27T16:32:02Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Why, they’re taken to a farm! Yes, that’s it… a lovely farm, with big green fields where they can run and bark and play with other banned users, all the livelong day! “Dude! We’re getting the banned back together!” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/47 "2015-10-27T16:45:51Z")
The first stage is anger, followed by a slow downward spiral into alcoholism, depravity and eventual madness and frequently suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/48 "2015-10-27T16:57:30Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > The first stage is anger, followed by a slow downward spiral into alcoholism, depravity and eventual madness and frequently suicide. Are you talking about rock bands, or banned users? I can’t really tell. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/49 "2015-10-27T17:05:44Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > “Dude! We’re getting the banned back together!” _fires torpedo at **Sailboat** _ ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/50 "2015-10-27T17:22:35Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > Well, it’s more of a cornfield actually. But it’s a good life. Yes, it’s a _very_ good life! Isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/51 "2015-10-27T19:26:59Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Generally, if you’re banned, you’re gone for good. There have been a case or two where someone was banned and allowed to come back, but those are rare. If someone makes another account, and it’s discovered, they’re booted. I think only one person has pulled something like that off where he signed up again, and went for a year or so before he was found out. He got banned then too. They have even went so far as to ban his IP. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > Usually they’re identified by their IP, at least that’s how it was when I modded a board. And if they’re not then they will always reveal themselves by the same sort of jerkish posts that got them banned in the first place. These people aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer. > [@Colibri](#): > > They can change their names, but they can’t change who they are. We often detect socks by their behavior. A jerk by any other name is still a jerk. These assertions have very little basis. I can recall offhand at least one banned poster who successfully returned and had a lengthy career here without getting caught. When the board went to PTP he decided not to sign up (apparently this would have revealed his identity), and [posted a thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=245992) revealing his former username. But there could be any number of other people who have done the same. The fact that the moderators don’t know about the people they haven’t caught is a truism. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/52 "2015-10-27T21:01:01Z")
**F-P** , I believe you just reiterated my point in an attempt to clarify. I may have been wrong about the length of time, and that he outed himself, but the general point of my comment stands. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/53 "2015-10-27T21:16:41Z")
How about if a member in good standing were to ask for moderator approval in advance to create a sock account and was willing to pay the additional membership fee? Take, for example, someone like me. Generally, I don’t like to use vulgar language and I prefer to discuss only high-brow subject matter. I have Tibby’s reputation to maintain and I don’t want it sullied. But, every so often, I’d like to let my hair down and cavort with the average SDMB riff-raff. However, I stifle myself because I don’t want to tarnish my sterling online character. Unfortunately, the board loses out because of all the plentiful, pithy posts I could have submitted, but didn’t, because I don’t let Tibby’s fur down. It’s a pity. I’m a [high self-monitor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-monitoring), as I suspect many of you are, too. Behaving differently to different audiences is the way we all act IRL, so why should the SDMB be any different? You wouldn’t give a wedgie to your grandma, or kiss your buddies on the cheek, would you (well, maybe some of you would)? Think of GQ as your professor, GD as your spouse, CS as your aunt, IMHO as your grandparent, MPSIMS as your sibling, The Pit as your ex-spouse and ATMB as your psychiatrist. No deception: your alter ego sock would be required to be identified as such. Example: Good Tibby/Bad Tibby; Serious Chronos/Wacky Chronos; Advocate Bricker/Devil’s Advocate Bricker…One’s sock could always be banned or put on ignore if he isn’t much liked, while maintaining the integrity of original you. I think this would add a new dimension to the boards while also adding a new revenue stream. It should be instituted immediately. > [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Why, they’re taken to a farm! Yes, that’s it… a lovely farm, with big green fields where they can run and bark and play with other banned users, all the livelong day! What exactly are you implying? My wife said she took my parents to a lovely farm in Upstate New York to frolic about. She did…didn’t she? ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/54 "2015-10-27T21:35:28Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Everywhere else they’re called alts (whether allowed or prohibited). Alt nicks ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/55 "2015-10-27T22:35:13Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > How about if a member in good standing were to ask for moderator approval in advance to create a sock account and was willing to pay the additional membership fee? > > Take, for example, someone like me. Generally, I don’t like to use vulgar language and I prefer to discuss only high-brow subject matter. I have Tibby’s reputation to maintain and I don’t want it sullied. > > But, every so often, I’d like to let my hair down and cavort with the average SDMB riff-raff. However, I stifle myself because I don’t want to tarnish my sterling online character. Unfortunately, the board loses out because of all the plentiful, pithy posts I could have submitted, but didn’t, because I don’t let Tibby’s fur down. It’s a pity. > > I’m a [high self-monitor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-monitoring), as I suspect many of you are, too. > > Behaving differently to different audiences is the way we all act IRL, so why should the SDMB be any different? You wouldn’t give a wedgie to your grandma, or kiss your buddies on the cheek, would you (well, maybe some of you would)? Think of GQ as your professor, GD as your spouse, CS as your aunt, IMHO as your grandparent, MPSIMS as your sibling, The Pit as your ex-spouse and ATMB as your psychiatrist. > > No deception: your alter ego sock would be required to be identified as such. Example: Good Tibby/Bad Tibby; Serious Chronos/Wacky Chronos; Advocate Bricker/Devil’s Advocate Bricker…One’s sock could always be banned or put on ignore if he isn’t much liked, while maintaining the integrity of original you. > > I think this would add a new dimension to the boards while also adding a new revenue stream. It should be instituted immediately. Been asked for multiple times before. Not gonna happen. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/56 "2015-10-27T22:38:54Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > What exactly are you implying? My wife said she took my parents to a lovely farm in Upstate New York to frolic about. She did…didn’t she? Of course she did. And they’re having a wonderful time there with lots of new friends. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/57 "2015-10-27T23:21:04Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > These assertions have very little basis. > > I can recall offhand at least one banned poster… Keyword “one”. I’m sure there have been or are others, but just as your memory allows you to recall at least one exception to the point, mine recalls at least 100-200 times banned members have tried to come back but were caught in the last year alone. So no, those assertions don’t have very little basis, it’s the majority. What you speak of are the exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/58 "2015-10-27T23:51:11Z")
May I suggest a Giraffe style ‘Box’ here on the SDMB where banned posters can at least be marginally be part of the larger community. The board would be better having some of those banned posters back. Or perhaps ban for four years? ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/59 "2015-10-28T00:02:23Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Keyword “one”. I’m sure there have been or are others, but just as your memory allows you to recall at least one exception to the point, mine recalls at least 100-200 times banned members have tried to come back but were caught in the last year alone. > . Nice detective work, mods. Do you go to school for that? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819/60 "2015-10-28T00:06:38Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > May I suggest a Giraffe style ‘Box’ here on the SDMB where banned posters can at least be marginally be part of the larger community. The board would be better having some of those banned posters back. I disagree. THIS board would be the worse for having most of the banned back, whether in a box or not. Carry them out in a box. That I can get behind. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-banned-users/735819.md?page=4)