the current warnings don't appear in the postbit:

Warnings Level: $post[warning_level]
Number of bans: $post[warning_bans]

Why is this?

fixed, i didn't apply the tamplate properly, as i did install this manually.

thank you thank you.

Its all working now!!

One questions

If i set the banning length to 7 days this means:

1st Ban - 7 Days
2nd Ban - 14 days
3rd Ban - PERMANENT

But what if the maturity of the ban is 30 days, does that mean the person will be banned for 30 days? or just 7? My bannign limit is 10 points and some of my warnings are for 10 points!!!

OK, let's clarify these things up:

Maturity: The period over which the points associated with a warning, affect the user's account. When the maturity period of a warning expires, then the points associated with that warning are removed.

Ban Duration: How many days a member will be banned. In order for a member to be banned, he/she has to collect the maximum warning points defined (banning limit). The initially defined ban duration, gets multiplied by the number of bans if you use incremental banning.

So the maturity of a warning does not affect the duration of the ban. If a warning carries the same number of points, as your ban limit, this means that the moment the member gets warned for that particular warning, he/she is also banned. How long will he be banned? As long as your ban period is, unless if you use incremental banning and the user has more than zero bans.

So yes, if your banning period is 7 days, first ban=7 days, second=14 days, third is permanent (if that's what you have defined in the options).

How long will those warning points remain into his account? As long as the warning maturity was, in this case 30 days. After 30 days, the warning will be removed.

You have indeed a point here. If a member commited enough offences to be banned, should after he is banned still carry the maximum warning points, and all his warnings, or shall we consider his warnings "punished" and remove them? I mean he was bad, he as punished, shall he starts at the edge again, or shall we give him/her a clean start, after he/she gets unbaned?My opinion is that the warnings and the associated points should be removed. If not we end up with someone who has 10 warning points, coming from 5 warnings, (which points if added can be more than 10) and who is not banned, even though he has the maximum warning points. You said messy? You bet.

Let me know of your opinions on this matter, I can change the hack to act in either way, depending on a Warning Option, or I can make it permanent to have the warnings removed (or made inactive), once a member is banned.

Rgds
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John

I think the best thing for this is:

If a user is banned for 7 days (your Ban Duration is for 7 days) but has 14 warning points and the banning limit is ten, the Maturity is 30. hmmm i'm confused now, i think thewy contractdict each other and one must go!!

A better system

Instead of having the Ban Duration and variable maturity i think you should change it to a fixed maturity, where all warnings last for the same amount of time..

For example the ban limit is 10: (each warning last for 10 days)

1st warning (4 points) issued on 01/01/01 (ends on 11/01/01)
2nd warning (2 points) issued on 07/01/01 (ends on 18/01/01)
3rd warning (6 points) issued on 09/01/01 (ends on 20/01/01)

On the 09 when he gor the 3rd warnign he would have been banned, but only for 2 days as on the eleventh the 1st warning would have expired.

Taking the above into consideration, the think which is causing confusing is the ban length when you reach 10 points (or whatever your limit is) this needs to go. Simple as that. hhmmm let me think again

Nope i'm totally confused, sorry i'm posting this post anyway as its taken me about 30 min thinking!!!

I think you have toooooooooooo many variables!!!!

Use incremental banning periods?
Number Of Days Members Are Banned

I still think its the Warn Maturity which is confusing me!! As this can contradict the ban length.

OHHHHHH MY BRAIN!!!

I installed this mod manually.

For some reason if I remove the quotes the query will go through like this on MySQL 4.0.20-standard / phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl2.......

But my question is this: in creating an autobot for the system warnings, you said this.....

I don't get that new field. :(

Where is that "Message Tag" code so I can double check if I typed/saved it correctly?

Thanks.

Chris

This is done by the install_warn.php script, or described in the upgradeToLatestVersion.txt.

To check it out, you should have the following phrases created:

setting_messagetag_desc
setting_messagetag_title

And also, in your setting table, there should be a line with varname equals to 'messagetag'.

Check the install_warn.php script for the queries you can run, or read the instructions in the upgrade on how to insert it from a browser page, if you do not have the above. If you have only one or two of them, but not all, you have to run the queries for the missing ones.

Rgds

The warn maturity is not contradicting the ban duration. Think of it this way. A member commits a ... "crime" and gets a warning for 3 points. The guy is not a bad guy, he just didn't read the rules correctly. So from there on, he behaves. Should those 3 points be with him for ever? I do not think so. Maybe, after 10 days, or three months, depending on the ... crime, the points get removed. If this is fixed or variable, it's up to you. You can have the same maturity period on all your warning types.

The question is, what you do with a member who keeps commiting offences, until he gets banned. Do you still keep his warning points after he is banned, or do you erase them and let him start from scratch when he is unbanned? The more I think of it, the more I believe that we should clean up his records, to give him a fresh start. The other way around can be confusing.

Can other people who have installed this hack jump in and tell us their opinions?

Rgds
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John