Banning a problem user
 

Hello,

We have a crazy user who needs to be banned from the forum (2.2.7) and he keeps changing IPs and registering new accounts. Any suggestions on a more permanent type of ban without blocking a MAJOR group of IPs?

I'd rather not close the forum to guest posting and have to validate all new users :( because of one punk. Any ideas?

Out of curiousity, how many times has he re-registered at your forums?

I've had some problem users in the post, but after a strict IP ban they usually stopped showing up.

It's hard once a user knows they've been banned, because then they come back persistant on being annoying.

If you replace in functions.php:
With:

That would simply output a 404-error and the user would never know what happened. Unless of course, someone were to tell them they were banned.

Anyway.. for your current issue.. I would try with some hacking to make it so nobody could view that users posts/threads/pms/etc. Eventually he should get so tired of nobody noticing him, he'd just leave.

I think a hack like this exists around the forum.. you may want to search for it.

Here is another method, by trapping users:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...hlight=404+ban

The best method i have used is the Miserable users hack :)

They just don't bother coming back... :)

- miSt

They can log out and re-join, though.... *if* they ever find out that that hack is on them. Keep the installation of it on the downlow;)

Just keep banning but never contact him or reply to any contact that he makes to you. Eventually he'll get bored and go away. If he doesn't, report him to his ISP.

Thanks for the replies... This guy was given the miserable hack and then he logged out. Once that happened he was back in business and setup a new userID. Every time I would try banning the user, he would come back with a new IP and a new user account.

So... I was able to track all this as I was online at the same time. New account, post ban him. Then he would keep doing this over and over.

Finally, he apologized and I reinstated his main account. But this punk is going to start trouble again so I'm not sure what to do.
I can't be too restrictive with an IP ban because I don't want to block all the other people within his ISP in the area (actually, I did that by mistake for about 10 mins).

I was lucky to be online at the same time he was, so I was able to track everything and his other IDs as he created them. But in the future when I'm not online to catch this, ugh. It can be a mess!

Oh, and when I emailed his ISP about this, wonderfull good `ol SBC global wouldn't help. All they were interested in was email abuse and SPAM.

Most ISPs are useless these days, I've reported some people to their ISP but they did *nothing* about it.

I wish my version of VB (2.2.7) had an option to ban by his hostname.

How could that help you? If he is using the same host everytime, just ban host's IP range so it is same with banning the host name.

If he does not use the same host everytime, it does not matter whether vb has such a feature or not.

You can try to put new users in moderation for some time until he is gone.

I've had people register dozens of times. At the end of the day it takes me much less time to push ban that it does for them to re-register. So they can't win :)