Announcing Banned Members... Publicly

What are your thoughts on creating announcements in regards to banned members? If and when you ban a member, do you somehow make the community aware of this action?

Personally, I would never do something like this. While a member may have had a negative effect on the community and/or caused mass amounts of trouble, it's embarrassing enough for he/she to be banished for a specific period of time. Announcing this publicly would humiliate this individual even further, which is not necessary.

 

No, its a lack of respect towards the person that was banned.

Since they can not defend themselves, let there be nothing said. And if something is said, let it be good.

 

Agreed, Kevin.

It's disrespectful. As mentioned, the banned member(s) would not be able to defend themselves and, because of this, inappropriate discussion among the community (i.e. bashing the banned individual) would most likely infest the board.

 

I wouldn't do this either, not only because it would be unnecessarily humiliating to the user, but also because it would make it look like infighting was rampant on the forum.

 

No, unless there was something serious like the person was some how continuing to log back on and scam people etc.

 

I personally wouldn't do it either.

What do you guys think about making ban logs public? Not making announcements, but providing a link to an AdminCP-like ban log where any member can see a live list of who's banned and why.

Although I don't like the idea of making any member matters like bans public, I can think of one instance where it might be a suitable idea: a forum infested with teenagers.

When I first acquired my iPod touch, I wanted to find a forum dedicated to it alone, where I could get some news and updates, and possibly learn some tips and tricks. Here's what I found: iPod touch Fans
Well after sticking around for a week, I realized that it was infested with immature kids and I really didn't find anything valuable on the forum.

Anyways, they have a section called "Crime and Punishment" where a thread is created for each warning/infraction issued (Crime and Punishment - iPod touch Fans forum). I just checked and there have been 69 threads there (meaning 69 warnings/infractions) in just the past 2 days, so obviously they have to handle these childish members with some force.

Ultimately, I think this public Crime and Punishment sections serves as a reminder to everybody that misbehavior will not be tolerated, and that the moderators will not hesitate to take action. If a member didn't know what would result of his or her behavior, they may be more tempted to break a rule.

But that's just a unique case.

 

Wow. No matter the size of the forum, showing that many warnings being issued is only going to indicate to the users that there are serious problems going on. I like to take care of things as quietly as possible.

 

I don't do it but I know of many off-topic/troll forums that have an actual page built to list every single banned member, the reason, and the date it will end (or not end). It's usually called banned.php or something, built into vBulletin.

 

Yeah, like:
Banlog - NoNewbs
Ban log
website ban log - bemanistyle.com

... there are a ton more: [ame=http://www.google.com/search?btnG=1&pws=0&q=inurl%3Abanlog.php]inurl:banlog.php - Google Search[/ame]

 

I would think that a list of banned members with reasons why they were banned would be an invite to some people to sign up for an alias account and go trolling.

 

Dattebayo.com [Fan Subbing company] has a public banned members section, it's quite hilarious, but very disrespectful. dattebayo fansubs :: Banned people

I wouldn't do that with any of my users, nor disrespect like Dattebayo does. They are still awesome xD

 

I would never make that public because there is no need for the user to know that. If someone they know gets banned then they will know it since it have an strike in the username and the usertitle Banned.

 

There is no such feature in default vbulletin, they are using a modification.

The only way you could do it in defult vb is to make the banned usergroup visible on the forum leaders page.

Personally we dont announce banned or suspended members, but we dont hide the fact someone is banned either. We never publicly discuss the reason for anyones ban (or suspension).

 

NO NEVAR

 

I think he knew that, but he was implying that it's integrated to vBulletin (with a modification, obviously) and looks just like the banned log that is accessible through the AdminCP.

 

Nope, never, nada. It's lack of respect. I wouldn't like that being done to me, so what make it right for me to do it to someone else?

 

Precisely, Boss - let's see how an administrator (who believes in doing this) feels after being put into such a situation.