Have you ever had to temp ban someone before? Do you think it helps or should they be outright banned? What circumstances do you see fit for a temp ban? I have today temp banned a member for a week after trolling quite a bit and then going onto insulting other members after several PC warnings by myself beforehand, they were polite and I asked him rather than told him etc. I am hoping that he will come back and not behave in the same way or could that just be wishful thinking? Any experience with this? What would you have done?
Not a fan of the temp ban. As a baseball umpire there is no such thing as a temporary ejection, if they deserve to go they deserve to go.
I agree. The way I see it, a forum is not unlike a second home and by issuing a ban you are effectively throwing someone out of home. For me issuing any type of ban is a rarely used, last resort so if it happens, it's always going to be a perm ban.
Yeah I don't usually bother with temp bans either, I find it fosters resentment more than anything else.
I agree with what everyone else has said except..... Depends on the circumstances and what sort of member the individual is. If they are a long standing member (for example) I would ask them to take a few days off from the forum (effectively temp banning themselves) and consider their position within the forum and whether they wish to remain a member. If there is no change after that, an outright ban would be the proper choice.
I'd temp ban people if they were being too immature (Had one user which trolled excessively and was just a pest, but never really did anything to get banned outright) and needed something a bit more than a warning.
Thanks everyone, those are all valid points and I really can see people being resentful after one coming back angry and whatnot. My situation is similar to the one Forsaken has mentioned, the member has been being a bit immature, trolling but hasnt been doing that much to get a ban, I have a feeling his behaviour could change and the temp ban at the time seemed to be the only thing he might actually listen to. If it all fails though the worst that could happen is he ends up either temp banned for a longer period or permanently.
In this situation I wouldn't bother with a temporary ban, I'd take it to private message and talk to him.
I already have several times and he responded to one of them saying he disagreed and that was it and carried on with the same behaviour
In some cases temp ban will work. Especially when the whole thing popped up due to difference in opinion between two members and one go wild. If he loves the community, in such cases they should get a second chance. But as for trolling, it is bye bye
I'm not a big fan of them, but I will make exceptions. But I'm only going to give you one chance, if you force me to ban you again you're gone for good. I've had cases where people came back under a new name and I let them stay though, because they had really changed. That's real rare though, happened maybe twice in the last 15 years.
Well the member is now back and does seem to have changed his posting habits so far at least so hopefully the temp ban was worth it with this one. I am with you on that Brad, if things go back to how they were the member wont be allowed back.
Yeah, I don't temp ban members usually. Most of the time I instead set it so their posts have to be approved by a moderator before showing up. If they continue to troll even after they are in moderation (or in my terms, "posting probation"), then I ban them. Is it a bit of extra work? Yeah, but its better than temporarily banning people. They can still post, its just that their posts have to be approved first.
