On your community what would cause an immediate ban for a member - no warnings, no discussions, just a complete outright ban (other than the usual spambots)? I think, for me, it would have to be something extreme. I prefer to try and talk to someone who's pushing limits and rarely ban anyone in typical circumstances.
To date, I haven't come across a situation that I can think of where I've had to do this. However, I can tell you right off the bat if anyone were to join my community and make hateful posts regarding race, sexual orientation, etc., I would probably insta-ban™ them. I just don't have any tolerance for people like that. Other than that, we would have words before any bans were issued.
I like the talking part as well. For us, banning's always come across as so final. Utlimately, if you ban someone, there's no chance of them being able to "save" them as future contributors. Talk More talk Suspension or, if I have the time, Probation...but ONLY if this member has colossal posting ability and potential. gogo
I'll try talking to someone causing problems. Once. If they continue to press the issue, they're gone. I believe the old adage about one bad apple spoiling the entire bunch. I actually had one member who was pressing buttons with a lot of other members. I contacted him and told him he was pushing the rules and I was really hoping he would stop and remain a productive member. When he was using his head, he was really an alright guy. It happened a second time, I contacted him again and jerked the chain a bit harder. The third time he kicked up his heels, he prefaced it by giving me a good cussin'. He was gone in a New York minute.
It's the same for me on both counts. Thankfully I rarely if ever have to deal with that situation but if it did occur there would be no debate just an instant ban.
lol I deal with so many kids...I instaban multiple per year: People come to my site from my competitor and start bashing us (like what's the point really?) People will be advertising their own site everywhere (like "We have staff openings on our cool modding site hosted with freewebs tehe" ) People who would spread rumors or talk shit about me and the way I run my website People I know that are affiliated with stealing information from my site without giving credit (and usually changing the authors name saying they were the creator of it) People affiliated with ripping and releasing my skins on warez sites etc. I think the list can go on. But I do it a lot more than most people here apparently lol I used to try talking to these children in the past, but most of them have such God complexes and think their shit don't stink that I've decided to take the stress off of myself and just ban the SOBs.
This may not be relevant to other sites, forums can be unique. On mine, banning means failure as we have not managed to find a resolution. This doesn't apply to the usual suspects ~ spammers, flamers and so on....
Barry, I agree, it's a bit like admitting failure. On the other hand, I know it is impossible to please everyone, all of the time. It simply cannot be done. So I don't bother trying to set myself up for failure by even trying. I do the best I can and I think most of my members can see that. When the odd trouble-maker comes along, I prefer to err on the side of caution. That being said, I just checked a site that was 5 years old last October and there have been a total of 6 people banned from that site. It's actually a total of 8 members, but one individual likes coming back to play sockpuppet games every 10-12 months. So it's not like I'm swinging the ban hammer on a daily basis.
Unless someone is an absolute pest, there are very few reasons why I will ban someone. Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is if they were trying to release infected files or threatening to 'hack' the site (This was a gaming website that developed chat/moderator applications for Battle.net).
Anything illegal will likely result in a ban without prior warning. Sexual activities, some areas of it will involve a ban. If someone join and they don't use English, I usually ban them...
I once got infracted for posting in Irish on an Irish forum. The mod was a Chinese national who lived in Ireland but had no knowledge of the language and made assumption as to the content of the post. She was wrong.
That would be horrible, lol. If someone joins my forum and uses broken English, I am fine with it just as long as they use English. I am not against other languages, I just don't know what they are saying and don't know if they are abusing any rules, haha.
I find it frustrating when people post with grammar and spelling errors, but we do have to recognise that forums can be international and this can mean errors in posts. But I do find it inexcusable when people make a post full of errors when English is their first language, that is just laziness, but it won't invoke a ban, just a sigh or two.
Flaming, spam, trolling on first post, they're gone. No questions asked. We have a rule on the site if you get your panties all twisted up and say you're quitting, I will assist and pull out the ban hammer. I don't do drama queens and have had my fill of those who claim they're going to quit, just to see what the reaction is. Other than that, it takes quite a bit to reach the point to where I'll nail someone with a ban. Even those with narrow minded idiotic views are allowed to stay, just for the entertainment factor as they're raked over the coals. Those types of individuals normally don't stick around very long and leave on their own accord.
