Site Comments & Suggestions

Locked: Perma-banned members who create new accounts/identities

  • Last Updated:
  • Apr 9th, 2015 11:43 pm
Tags:
None
Deal Guru
Mar 14, 2005
13811 posts
2516 upvotes

Perma-banned members who create new accounts/identities

What are the procedures to get rid of these people? Just wait for them to screw up again?
26 replies
Moderator
Sep 27, 2003
11122 posts
3367 upvotes
Newmarket
Are there any examples right now where a banned member has returned and is breaking the rules (beyond just creating another account)?
RFD Forums Moderator
Banned
May 12, 2004
9756 posts
4136 upvotes
Ottawa
Breaking the rules? Not sure i try to ignore. Trying to provoke and annoy the living crap out of the community with 150 useless posts in a week brings nothing to the community expect frustrations. Just read some posts bro.
Moderator
Sep 27, 2003
11122 posts
3367 upvotes
Newmarket
Cas77 wrote: Breaking the rules? Not sure i try to ignore. Trying to provoke and annoy the living crap out of the community with 150 useless posts in a week brings nothing to the community expect frustrations. Just read some posts bro.
Unless the posts are considered trolling, completely non-contributory, or breaking other forum rules, we are not here to censor posts, even ones that others in the community may feel are useless.

If there are posts that you believe are of actual concern, please report them and we will address. If there is a specific user that needs to have their post history investigated as a whole, please send a mod or TomRFD a PM so we can look into it (as opposed to reporting 100 separate posts for one user).

I also don't regularly read most areas of the forums. I stick to my interest areas (as the other mods likely do as well), and only dip into other areas if handling a report. This is why we rely on reports or threads created here to make us aware of what is going on.
RFD Forums Moderator
Banned
May 12, 2004
9756 posts
4136 upvotes
Ottawa
Is returning with a new name after a perma ban not considered breaking the rules? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out here...
Deal Guru
User avatar
Oct 14, 2003
14325 posts
1241 upvotes
Calm down Bro.
Science
is the new
rock 'n'
roll.
Banned
May 12, 2004
9756 posts
4136 upvotes
Ottawa
Ojam wrote: Calm down Bro.
Sorry bro.

Point being what if all 700,000 people on here started doing that...even 1% it would make a mockery of this site.
Deal Expert
Sep 3, 2007
16039 posts
400 upvotes
It's easy to weed them out when they start talking like a former banned member. Even if they try to talk differently, it'll still be a lot of effort in their parts.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jul 5, 2004
27438 posts
6807 upvotes
Cas77 wrote: Is returning with a new name after a perma ban not considered breaking the rules? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out here...
It may not take a rocket scientist to figure it out, but we can't just ban someone because we believe they are a previously banned member. We have to be able to prove it, otherwise we can't do much. Besides, if someone does return to this site but follows the rules the second time around, we're not going to worry about them.

There's a lot of posts on this site, so we're not necessarily going to see the same things you do.
Moderator
May 28, 2012
12484 posts
5278 upvotes
Saskatoon
If a banned member started a new account and became a good contributor, and stopped posting in the same way that cause their ban in the first place...I can see the site allowing them to stay. But generally that's not the cause, they usually pick up where they left off or become even more obnoxious. Those, I believe, should be given the ban-hammer as soon as they are detected.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jul 5, 2004
27438 posts
6807 upvotes
Mars2012 wrote: If a banned member started a new account and became a good contributor, and stopped posting in the same way that cause their ban in the first place...I can see the site allowing them to stay. But generally that's not the cause, they usually pick up where they left off or become even more obnoxious. Those, I believe, should be given the ban-hammer as soon as they are detected.
Trust me, we do. Sometimes these people go through a lot of hassle to not be identified though, so it takes us a little longer to make sure it actually is a previously banned member and not a new trouble maker.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jan 4, 2009
4190 posts
5288 upvotes
on the links!
Although I'm against most of the censorship crap around here, I would rather see "bro" added to the filter instead of ***** and ***** and *****.

I think even George Carlin would agree.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Aug 18, 2005
21223 posts
5939 upvotes
Burlington-Hamilton
Unfortunately it seems that when these banned posters come back, old time members know what's going on and don't take the trolling seriously. I'm sure it makes things hard for new users though.

Does it make any difference when I send an alert saying "This person posts a lot like <troll name>?" It's pretty obvious some people have multiple accounts and are using VPN to troll, etc.
- casual gastronomist -
Deal Expert
User avatar
Jul 5, 2004
27438 posts
6807 upvotes
Jucius Maximus wrote: Unfortunately it seems that when these banned posters come back, old time members know what's going on and don't take the trolling seriously. I'm sure it makes things hard for new users though.

Does it make any difference when I send an alert saying "This person posts a lot like <troll name>?" It's pretty obvious some people have multiple accounts and are using VPN to troll, etc.
It's very helpful when we get reports or PM's like that.
Deal Expert
User avatar
Aug 18, 2005
21223 posts
5939 upvotes
Burlington-Hamilton
Shaner wrote: It's very helpful when we get reports or PM's like that.
Thanks for the feedback. Some of these "new users" are so obvious in their knowledge of how to "dance within the lines" for RFD moderation of trolling. But I usually don't get any obvious feedback on the reports so often I wonder if they really make a difference, etc.
- casual gastronomist -
Deal Expert
User avatar
May 10, 2005
36997 posts
11419 upvotes
Ottawa
Sauerkraut wrote: Although I'm against most of the censorship crap around here, I would rather see "bro" added to the filter instead of ***** and ***** and *****.

I think even George Carlin would agree.
Hey "bro" I really agree with you :lol:

Sorry ......
“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.”
Deal Guru
Mar 14, 2005
13811 posts
2516 upvotes
Becks wrote: What are the procedures to get rid of these people? Just wait for them to screw up again?
WorldIRC wrote: Are there any examples right now where a banned member has returned and is breaking the rules (beyond just creating another account)?
Ok, so it sounds like the answer is that we need to wait for them to screw up again.

Previously, in this forum, I suggested that RFD have forum-specific moderators so that there would be better accountability to action/inaction taken within a forum. Another good reason is that moderators who know their turf well will know when a perma-banned member comes back again. Just sayin', 'cuz it's really tedious and time consuming, as a member, to report stuff or have to prove stuff (which often, nothing gets done), when it's pretty obvious to anyone who is a forum regular, to see what's going on.

And, what's really annoying, is that members have to be super nice and welcoming to the supposed "newbies", 'cuz those are the "rules".
Deal Guru
User avatar
Aug 20, 2012
13879 posts
3290 upvotes
Pacific Ocean
The only way to prove a perm banned member has returned is via cross-ip check between the accounts. It's not 110% accurate but more often than not it's a dead giveaway. Of course the member will be smarter this time and use a different ip, vpn, wifi from different server, etc. So there is no sure way 110% guaranteed to out every multi-username. We had a thread on this few months back. There is a vbulletin mod which checks for ip's and usernames with same/similar ip's and produces a report. I'm on another vbulletin site that uses it and they have a specific forum that outs multi-usernames, lol. The admin has stated it's not an issue unless they use multiple fonts to cause problems -- ie. trolling, harassing, stalking, continuous derailment of threads, etc. They have to pick one username and notify the admin of their choice. If an incident occurs then all multi-usernames/ip of that font is perm banned and kept on a special list.
If the glove don't fit you must acquit! #WINNING
Moderator
Sep 27, 2003
11122 posts
3367 upvotes
Newmarket
Searching by IP is a tool we have access to but it's useless most of the time. We have times where a hundred users are sharing an IP, especially on the Mobile site.

Officially, creating a second user name is against the rules, but unless their initial ban was considered very serious or they continue to offend, we would not actively pursue it until we had reason to.
RFD Forums Moderator
Moderator
User avatar
Aug 20, 2009
9825 posts
5933 upvotes
The only time I've ever noticed one banned user in the video game forum (an area I frequent) I reported it to one of the moderators via PM who took care of it faster than I could finish my coffee. I try to be polite and courteous to the 2 mods I see frequenting the forums I stick to and I find they are the same in return when I report problems. I try not to waste their time with reports where I just don't like what someone else had to say (banned user or otherwise) so that when I do report something its not like "oh geez this guy again". Anyways just some food for thought.

Top

Thread Information

There is currently 1 user viewing this thread. (0 members and 1 guest)