Mabwich

A couple of time recently, in the last week or so, I've seen that people have been banned for uploading child porn. Does the site have policy about passing the banned members details to the police in such cases? If not, perhaps you should consider implementing one.

This site should help you check if the problem is just you or something more general.

Shezrie's plight makes me think that ban and warning posts on the forums should only remain public for a limited time after which they should be removed from public view. I would suggest that 1 month would be appropriate. Much longer than this and the post loses its relevancy and immediacy. I also feel that when someone is reinstated the details of the original ban should be made private. After all, if someone has been reinstated is the original offence really relevant any more?

The Vampire Dante: That is not quite true. You may also have details of the offence which staff members can place somewhere that is only accessible to other staff members. If the offence is public, and so is the punishment, then the details of the offence should be public too if you intend to be completely open.

These are my thought on how bans and warnings should be handled: Make sure the person receiving a warning or a ban knows why. I have at times encountered the "If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you" response when I've apparently done something wrong, but didn't know what. Extremely unhelpful, and almost guaranteed to ensure I did the same wrong thing another time. I feel strongly that if someone gets banned or warned they should be informed of the reason for the ban so they can appeal against it if they wish. I am making this remark because I have seen indications on the forums that some people have been banned without knowing why. Where possible post details of the warning or ban in the same place as the offence was committed. This highlights what is unacceptable and so may discourage others from doing something similar. It also shows victims of the offence that something has been done to remove the problem. Try to find a way of removing accounts by request other than by banning them. It seems overly harsh to me to ban someone, implying to others that they have done something wrong, when they are helping to keep your membership base tidy by requesting the removal of an unwanted account. It also reduces the apparent seriousness of bans because these bans are given when to people who have done nothing wrong. I have a horrible suspicion though that bans are the only way the forum software lets accounts be deleted, so this idea may just not be possible.