We Need A Mod!

[WILDER]

I miss all the fun.

 

[Lateral Line]

IP bans are pretty futile really. Most people at home have a lease on an IP, and when that expires, (depends on ISP but rarely more then 24 hours), they will get a new IP from their allocated DHCP pool. What you have then done is placed an IP ban on some random address that could be picked up by someone totally blameless.

Another issue is that if you want, and know how, you can appear to post every message from a different address - it is easy to do.

Sometimes, you can hit back though. On another board I mod, we had a crowd of spammers come along and we traced the IP to their school. Turned out they were using the machines in their computer labs. We contacted the school and past the details on of the user names, (which are often a giveaway if you know the people concerned), times, (which class was in the room), etc.. We had a formal apology arrive sometime later, not from the school itself, but from the IT chief of the area covering that, and other schools.

 

[poopsydrew]

IP bans are pretty futile really. Most people at home have a lease on an IP, and when that expires, (depends on ISP but rarely more then 24 hours), they will get a new IP from their allocated DHCP pool. What you have then done is placed an IP ban on some random address that could be picked up by someone totally blameless.

Another issue is that if you want, and know how, you can appear to post every message from a different address - it is easy to do.

Sometimes, you can hit back though. On another board I mod, we had a crowd of spammers come along and we traced the IP to their school. Turned out they were using the machines in their computer labs. We contacted the school and past the details on of the user names, (which are often a giveaway if you know the people concerned), times, (which class was in the room), etc.. We had a formal apology arrive sometime later, not from the school itself, but from the IT chief of the area covering that, and other schools.

Of course, anyone who wanted to bad enough could get around pretty much any ban.

Still, Im not sure if you were here for it, but it seemed to be a very young person just messing around. If the IP had been Immediatley blocked and banned (could be removed whenever) then he probably wouldnt have been able to continue and post for about 30 more minutes as the mods scrambled to find all his posts and member accounts. Once he was dealt with and problem was resolved, a moderator review could be put on the IP requirig you to preview new posts by this IP to make sure it isnt him again, this way you wont be banning someone who picks up his IP, just reviewing their post to ensure its not spam.

You are right, one can work around bans etc if they want to but trust me, if the IP would have been banned immediatley yesterday it would had made the mods work a little easier. Yes he could get around it, but it wouldve taken time giving the mods and the forum more time to deal with it.

Drew

 

[Inchworm]

It's over now and unless there's an urgent problem the mods don't need to see a thread calling to them for assistance. Thanks to everyone who helped us last night.

 

[Lateral Line]

Just to add, mods do not have access to the admin panel. Only Will can issue an IP ban.