Banned user creating havoc

[Quixote Kid]

How do I stop a banned user from registering with free email addresses? He is persistent. I knew what his IP address was, but he must know a way to get new IP addresses. How can I stop this idiot from wasting my time?

Thanks for your help!

[COD3M4ST3R-X]

Well to prevent him from registering again you can make the registration process a bit tougher.
Try the following MODS
Prime Birthdate Require

Code: Select all

http://www.absoluteanime.com/admin/mods.htm#birthdate

Prime Anti-Bot

Code: Select all

http://www.absoluteanime.com/admin/mods.htm#anti-bot

Anti-Spam-ACP

Code: Select all

http://www.lithiumstudios.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=941

[James N]

Make it so that all new members posts have to go in the moderation queue. That way he can join, but cant post

[Quixote Kid]

OK, I've made it so that the banned user now has to go thru the admin, but how do I know it's him? I've recently caught him using a known email address, but he had gotten a different IP address.

[Phantasmagoric]

There really isn't much you can do to stop such a persistent member, but there are some things you can do in the future to reduce the chances of this type of behaviour occurring again.

First and foremost, banning members 'absolutely must be a last resort', and I really do mean an absolute last resort.

If a member is being out of place persistently on your forum then you can get them to talk with you either with a chat server or through your private message system, 99 times out of a 100 the aberrant behaviour can be brought to a halt by talking calmly with the member(s) in question.

Always keep in mind that your members are people with their own lives and their very own troubles, some of your members may be having tremendous stress problems in their own private lives. Although we do not want our members being unkind and/or out of place on our forums, we should be very much aware of the human equation, we must at all times try to be as understanding as we can, within limits of course.

You will find that the vast majority of odd behaviour on your forum will stem from your members having something really tough or painful or scary happening in their lives, they may find your forum a 'safe place' to vent! It is a good idea to have an area on your forum where members can vent their own life troubles if the need arises, you can keep venting out of the normal discussion areas then.

As for dealing with this member who has been banned on your site and is causing you trouble, it may be as well for you to munch on some humble pie, was this member banned because 'you' were in an odd frame of mind, was the ban really justified! You may find that if you remove the ban from that member and invite him to come back on site as a restored member and talk with you about the whole affair that the ban was not really fair.

Keeping a tight rein on your moderators is also a key factor, too many sites have moderators who fly around the forum like they're gods, it's an odd thing to say I know but it really happens. Of course then some site owners oddly defend such behaviour and chew out the members when they've had enough of moderators being planks and speak out, your members should have the right to voice their side of things, moderators should be there to keep the peace and keep the site flowing nicely, not enforcing site rules like some blind lunatic with an axe to grind.

Yeah okay, so I'm ranting now, basically, your best option would be to talk to this members and be peaceable, it's easy to make enemies on the net, even when it is your last intention.

[Quixote Kid]

Phantasmagoric, Great post on general admin/moderator places and what is and is not needed.

Yes, his ban was needed.

Yes, I talked to him on the phone even, all was well until he went off the deep end again.

He is lifting pictures from the board and posting them on his site to help sell his product. He is also slandering people and running them down publicaly on the discussion board. The last straw was him PM'ing people and to continue the slander privetly. At this pointin time he is determined to only be on the board to create havoc.

I've had trouble people and they have been reasonable once I talked to them. I've never met such a determined, troublemaker.

[Phantasmagoric]

It's always difficult when someone chooses to behave in that way, I wish I could offer you a solution or a sense of closure, but I think you already realise there is no real closure to be had in such circumstances.

Sufficed to say that your members will know when someone is being out of place, yes, some people will fall into the trap of getting carried away in the moment, but for the most part people are able to judge situations for themselves. If there are legal matters that need to be followed up with regard to commercial entities being stolen from your site then you can always consider consulting a lawyer and possibly pursuing a liable court case, but that would not necessarily be your best course of action.

I really do wish I could resolve this for you, I've been there myself and have had to simply ride the storm out.

[dmarks83]

very interesting read... not looking forward to my first abuser lol. There were some very methodical comments though. Keep up the good work guys!

[KeoniCp]

Even this kind of problematic user can be deterred with a few simple techniques used together:

• 1) Disable PM if possible (or install something like Anti-SPAM ACP or/and Restrict Functions)
  2) Enable moderation for all topics in all forums/subforums in the following manner:
  • 2.1) Create a new group and move your trusted users there
    2.2) Enable this new group to post without moderation
    2.3) Enable moderation for the "Registered Users" Group

If possible install the 2 mods suggested above, they implement powerful features that allow you extra control over spamming not possible otherwise.

You'll see that with these in place I bet the user won't possibly come near to either posting or harassing users anymore
Remember to take a look at posts that need approval and dispatch them accordingly and also move new trusted users to the trusted group.

Lastly, further resources on ways to stop spamming in your forum can be found at: http://www.stopforumspam.com

I'm also facing this annoying plague in my forum. Since I also need to approve new user registrations, I'm receiving dozens of new users to activate each day. I'm managing this by sending them back an e-mail requiring them to answer a couple of easy / simple questions and activating the replies. So far so good, with the above technique I'm catching all spam attempts and avoiding having hundreds of useless accounts.

[COD3M4ST3R-X]

Well as far as you want to benefit from StopforumSpam.com
Use the following MOD.
Automatic Spammer Detection