Banlist

MadsL

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/banlist.php

Any chance this could be made searchable in some way? Like a Banned or Not page? At the moment it is impossible to know if a user has been banned or merely has Banned as their title. Even looking at their profile.

I just saw a well-respected user with banned as a title but it is impossible to know if they are perma-banned or just on a little break.

As I have said before it would be simple to make using "Banned" as a title a bannable offence to avoid confusion.

MugMugs

Probably best to post this in site Dev or even report your op and ask for a move to site Dev.

Penn

MadsL wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/banlist.php

Any chance this could be made searchable in some way? Like a Banned or Not page? At the moment it is impossible to know if a user has been banned or merely has Banned as their title. Even looking at their profile.

I just saw a well-respected user with banned as a title but it is impossible to know if they are perma-banned or just on a little break.

As I have said before it would be simple to make using "Banned" as a title a bannable offence to avoid confusion.

"Banned" isn't allowed as a custom title if I remember correctly. Same with Closed Account and the various Moderator/Employee titles. So if you see "Banned" and it doesn't look like it's been manipulated in some way (eg. a full-stop at the end), it means they were banned. Whether permanent or not, who knows?

MadsL

Penncil Dick wrote: »

"Banned" isn't allowed as a custom title if I remember correctly. Same with Closed Account and the various Moderator/Employee titles. So if you see "Banned" and it doesn't look like it's been manipulated in some way (eg. a full-stop at the end), it means they were banned. Whether permanent or not, who knows?

How would I report that if I can't look up the ban list?

And titles can be manipulated with a Cyrillic B.

Penn

MadsL wrote: »

How would I report that if I can't look up the ban list?

And titles can be manipulated with a Cyrillic B.

No, I meant the system itself actually doesn't allow you to have it as your Custom Title. But like you said, if it can be manipulated somehow, then you might not be able to tell.

Gordon

Don't seem to be any instances of user titles with Cyrillic b: б

If you see a custom title that looks like it says banned, but it's a different character set, let us know and we'll amend.

Dav

Also, let's leave the worrying about who's been banned or not to us.

MadsL

Penncil Dick wrote: »

No, I meant the system itself actually doesn't allow you to have it as your Custom Title. But like you said, if it can be manipulated somehow, then you might not be able to tell.

I have seen users actively posting with Banned as a title. No way to check.

But the issue is more that whilst the current ban list is public there is no way to know if MrLongStandingPoster has been banned, why and for how long unless you catch it in the 3 day window that the banlist is active.

I admit it is voyeuristic but if your neighbour is arrested you probably eventually find out why.

Dravokivich

MadsL wrote: »

I just saw a well-respected user with banned as a title but it is impossible to know if they are perma-banned or just on a little break.

That may be your perception of'em, but the site's experience with'em could be entirely different. What does it matter to you or I, or why should it even matter or need to be distinguished if it's permanent or temporary?

Gordon

MadsL wrote: »

I have seen users actively posting with Banned as a title. No way to check.

But the issue is more that whilst the current ban list is public there is no way to know if MrLongStandingPoster has been banned, why and for how long unless you catch it in the 3 day window that the banlist is active.

I admit it is voyeuristic but if your neighbour is arrested you probably eventually find out why.

If they are actively posting then they either just got banned a few minutes ago, or they have somehow managed to bodge the custom title. Therefore, if they aren't on the banlist, let us know and we can have a look at their actual title.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

Don't seem to be any instances of user titles with Cyrillic b: б

If you see a custom title that looks like it says banned, but it's a different character set, let us know and we'll amend.

If it is modified to fly under the radar how would I know? Wouldn't it be better to not waste time reporting a legitimate banned user.

Dav wrote: »

Also, let's leave the worrying about who's been banned or not to us.

Huh? Then why publish a banlist at all?

I thought we were a community? Communities tend to be transparent about why offending members were punished.

Why such an autocratic response?

Orim

Dravokivich wrote: »

That may be your perception of'em, but the site's experience with'em could be entirely different. What does it matter to you or I, or why should it even matter or need to be distinguished if it's permanent or temporary?

For the same reason the curtains will twitch if you see the flashing blue lights outside your house and people will rubberneck at accidents. It's also the reason that long-standing posters tend to have the highest viewed prison threads.

Curiosity can catch out the best of us.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

If they are actively posting then they either just got banned a few minutes ago, or they have somehow managed to bodge the custom title. Therefore, if they aren't on the banlist, let us know and we can have a look at their actual title.

But I cannot see if they are on the banlist past 3 days ago.

phasers

Good lord there's a lot of peppers on there.

MadsL

Dravokivich wrote: »

That may be your perception of'em, but the site's experience with'em could be entirely different. What does it matter to you or I, or why should it even matter or need to be distinguished if it's permanent or temporary?

Well one reason is to stop quoting their posts or referencing them as they cannot respond.

Gordon

MadsL wrote: »

But I cannot see if they are on the banlist past 3 days ago.

As I said: if you are seeing them posting, then they just got banned. Therefore if you look at the banlist then you will see their name. If you don't see their name on the banlist and they have just been posting then they may have a custom title.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

As I said: if you are seeing them posting, then they just got banned. Therefore if you look at the banlist then you will see their name. If you don't see their name on the banlist and they have just been posting then they may have a custom title.

Pesky logic

So how about my voyeuristic tendencies?? Back to curtain-twitching?

Gordon

It's not pesky at all, it's quite simple I would have thought. If you see someone that's been posting, and is banned, then there are two scenarios. One of which is negligible in terms of potential reality.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

It's not pesky at all, it's quite simple I would have thought. If you see someone that's been posting, and is banned, then there are two scenarios. One of which is negligible in terms of potential reality.

Well logically there are three scenarios, one of which invoves the hamsters.

But by posting "pesky logic" I was conceding the point...

However, the curtain-twitching remains; do the Admins have a viewpoint on if humble users might be permitted to see the entire ban history and reason.

After all "Why was PosterX banned?" is a common question.

We can click on a card and see the reason at any time, but if we do not read the banlist in 3 days we may never know why someone is banned.

MugMugs

MadsL wrote: »

, but if we do not read the banlist in 3 days we may never know why someone is banned.

But it's not really any of your business why they were banned. You don't need to know why they were banned.

MadsL

MugMugs wrote: »

But it's not really any of your business why they were banned. You don't need to know why they were banned.

So why have a public ban list and public yellow/red card system with reasons why people were banned.

We don't keep the reasons people are convicted of criminal offences private, is that none of my business too?

Gordon

MadsL wrote: »

if we do not read the banlist in 3 days we may never know why someone is banned.

You generally won't know why someone is banned even if you do read the banlist, the vast majority of bans are done via modutils and therefore there are only a maximum of 12 reasons. Of those twelve, we mainly use four or five whereas the actual meaty reason is contained within the message that gets sent to the user, that you never see. So I see no point in making the banlist show for all historic bans.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

You generally won't know why someone is banned even if you do read the banlist, the vast majority of bans are done via modutils and therefore there are only a maximum of 12 reasons. Of those twelve, we mainly use four or five whereas the actual meaty reason is contained within the message that gets sent to the user, that you never see. So I see no point in making the banlist show for all historic bans.

OK. Good to know. As I said it is merely curtain-twitching on my part. I'm more curious than my cat

Is there a user education value in displaying the actual reasons? We have a league of bastards - league of reasons for bans? I love a good graph.

Gordon

MadsL wrote: »

OK. Good to know. As I said it is merely curtain-twitching on my part. I'm more curious than my cat

Is there a user education value in displaying the actual reasons? We have a league of bastards - league of reasons for bans? I love a good graph.

No I don't believe so. The actual reasons may contain personal info, but even if they didn't, I don't think there would be value other than curtain twitching. Also, the drawbacks of having a permanent historic record on display of all our banned users would come into play.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

No I don't believe so. The actual reasons may contain personal info, but even if they didn't, I don't think there would be value other than curtain twitching. Also, the drawbacks of having a permanent historic record on display of all our banned users would come into play.

What would those drawbacks be? (he asks with a very cheeky grin knowing full well he is flirting with Gordon and fire, but mostly Gordon)

Insect Overlord

MadsL wrote: »

What would those drawbacks be? (he asks with a very cheeky grin knowing full well he is flirting with Gordon and fire, but mostly Gordon)

There are one or two idiots competing for the record of most accounts banned. It would be like a league table for them, so that'd be one drawback!

Chazz Michael Michaels

MadsL wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/banlist.php

Any chance this could be made searchable in some way? Like a Banned or Not page? At the moment it is impossible to know if a user has been banned or merely has Banned as their title. Even looking at their profile.

I just saw a well-respected user with banned as a title but it is impossible to know if they are perma-banned or just on a little break.

As I have said before it would be simple to make using "Banned" as a title a bannable offence to avoid confusion.

What's with that "The X Pepper" guy?

MadsL

Chazz Michael Michaels wrote: »

What's with that "The X Pepper" guy?

His posts were too spicy for boards.




Anyone seen my coat

MadsL

An File wrote: »

There are one or two idiots competing for the record of most accounts banned. It would be like a league table for them, so that'd be one drawback!

I meant league of reasons, not league of trolls. No names, no pack drill, that type of league.

MadsL

Gordon wrote: »

You generally won't know why someone is banned even if you do read the banlist, the vast majority of bans are done via modutils and therefore there are only a maximum of 12 reasons. Of those twelve, we mainly use four or five whereas the actual meaty reason is contained within the message that gets sent to the user, that you never see. So I see no point in making the banlist show for all historic bans.

[Feel free to tell me to feck off at any point, you are Gordon, so I am already prostrate before thee]
But how do custom messages appear then? ie "Re-reg to evade site ban (pip ellis/shirl588)"

Gordon

MadsL wrote: »

What would those drawbacks be? (he asks with a very cheeky grin knowing full well he is flirting with Gordon and fire, but mostly Gordon)

One example of a drawback of having a publicly accessible list of nearly 70,000 account names and their corresponding ban reasons would be social media bleed. As people like to use similar usernames on multiple sites, their boards ban could be used against them elsewhere, or alternatively, someone else's boards ban could be used against them.

I think it's worth pointing out that the banlist is a throwback to boards' more heady days, created a number of years ago when we had less patience for timewasters and troublemakers and bit back more. If it was never created before, I don't think we'd entertain the idea if it was posed now. In fact, I think dev or regi created it on a whim for ****s and giggles iirc.