Problems with unbanning users

[Vierie]

Hi,

I've got some trouble with the aws. My first ban is supposed to be after 5 warnings and for 3 days. But instead of the ban being lifted after 3 days, my users are automatically transfered to permanently banned. If I try to unban somebody myself they are also moved to permanently banned.
So far I solved that by changing the use group manually but now the aws doesn't seem to know that the users were already banned. So people who had 5 points and get a sixth one are banned. And I suppose people who reach 10 points will be banned only for 3 days instead of 6, but so far I don't have users who reached that point.

What did I do wrong and how can I solve this?

Thanks
Vierie

[sv1cec]

If I remember correctly (and this is written, after Greece win in the Eurovision Song Contest, which we dully celebrated with some wine), AWS does not handle the unbanning of banned members. This is done by the standard vB software.

A question: Have you set the Warning Options properly, especially the User Group Options? Go to your AdminCP and find the Warning System menu. Expand that, and check your Warning Options. What is the Restore Usergroup set to?

As for the second issue, users get unbanned (or should get unbanned) when the banning period expires, but they do not loose the points they have accumulated, until each of the warnings they got, matures. Look at the following example:

Warning Point Limit : 5 points
Ban Period : 10 days

1st warning a user gets: 2 points, maturity period 15 days
2nd warning a user gets: 3 points, maturity period 30 days

The user is banned as soon as he receives the second warning. After ten days, the user is unbanned, but he still has 5 points. If he receives another one he gets banned instantly.

Suppose that he didn't receive another warning. After 15 days, from the date he received his first warning, that warning is matured, so the 2 points are now removed from the user's account. If he now receives a warning for 1 point, he has 4 points, but does not get banned.

One month after the second warning was issued, the 3 points are removed from the user's account. Etc.

I hope this clears things up.

Let me know how you are going.

[Vierie]

It is set to registered users (group 2).

I know that they don't loose points.

The problem is:
We had three people who got the limit of 5 points for the first ban, which should have been for 3 days. After three days, instead of beeing unbanned, they were move to the permanently banned group. No mod or admin had anything to do with that.
We had to move the users manually to the registered users group. After this every warning any of them was given automatically banned them for another three days.
But normally they shouldn't be banned till they got 10 points and than for six days, not three.
It takes 90 days for the warnings to be removed. None of them was anywhere near that, so it doesn't have anything to do with that.

[sv1cec]

Your second problem is not a problem. This is the way AWS works. If the warnings are not removed for 90 days, that means that even after they get unbanned (in your case, you moved the users to the registered users), they still have the points they had when they got banned (5 points in your case).

The first warning they get after they get unbanned, makes their warning points total, larger than the ban limit again, so they get banned again. And there is only one warning points limit. The warning points limit does not get doubled, if you use incremental banning, only the banning period gets doubled.

As far as the first problem is concerned, tell me what the following options are set for:

Ban Duration
Warning Points Limit
Warnings Number Limit
Use incremental banning periods?
Number of bans, before permanent banned?
Banned Usergroup
Permanent Ban Usergroup
Restore Usergroup

I believe that the reason your members were banned, is because they received another warning right after they get unbanned. To test this, create a test user and issue to him enough warnings to get him banned. As soon as he exceeds the ban limit, check in which user group he belongs. From then on, and until the ban duration passes, do not issue another warning to that member. After the ban duration passes, check to see in which user group the test user now is.

Rgds

[Vierie]

Ban Duration 3
Warning Points Limit 5
Warnings Number Limit 5
Use incremental banning periods? Yes
Number of bans, before permanent banned? 2
Banned Usergroup banned Users ID:8
Permanent Ban Usergroup banned Users ID:8
Restore Usergroup registered Users ID:2

Ok, thanks, seems that I had a small misunderstanding of how it works. That would explain the second mistake. (Although not, how I work around that, but that's my problem.)

[sv1cec]

I really can't see how else your problem could have occured, unless the user got another warning, as soon as he was unbanned. I checked the code and did a simulation with your settings in my site. The banned users end up in the proper usergroup and they are "temporarily" banned, as they should. Also, when a user is banned, while he is banned, even if he receives another warning, his ban status does not change, only the ban removal date is altered.

The only way they can end up being permanently banned, is (a) if they received a permanent ban warning the first time, or if they got another warning as soon as they were unbanned. Since your temp.ban limit is two (after they get banned twice, they become permanently banned), that's the only thing that I can think of.

Rgds

[Vierie]

No, they didn't write anything in between. I remember looking at the banned members and there were three of them with a period of three days. The next thing I know was an icq message of one of the members, telling me that the three days were long over and asking why he wasn't unbanned. I looked again and all three people were in the permanently banned section. Without any mod doing anything.

[sv1cec]

I think I know what happened. What version of AWS are you running?

Rgds

[Vierie]

3.4.10

[sv1cec]

I am not sure what to tell you, the unbanning is not handled by AWS. It's done by the vB software. All AWS is doing, when banning the member, is to enter the predefined usergroup, in which the member has to be restored in, in the userban table record that is created, when the user gets banned. The unbanning per se, is handled by vB. Did you do the banning test I suggested?