Work in progress, expect frequent changes.

Please see SMF1.1:Ban list, SMF2.0:Ban list or SMF2.1:Ban list depending on the version of SMF you are using.

The Ban List sub-menu is found in Admin Center > Members > Ban List. It has four pages or tabs: Ban List, Add New Ban, Browse Ban Triggers, and Ban Log. These are all described below.

The optional Warnings System, which is also found in Admin Center > Members, can automatically remove member rights as their warning level increases. We call the removal of member rights "user limitations". Those user limitations earned via Warnings are mild compared to banning. Banning is the ultimate user limitation, because in certain cases, it can block the banned member from viewing the forum at all. For this reason, banning is a step which should be strongly considered, and not handed out frivolously.

Ban List

Until version 2.1, this feature was called the "Ban Log" . The new version of the Ban Log is described below. Now this feature is called Ban List, and is used to show which members have been banned from participating in the forum. There are different levels, or strengths of banning, which will be explained below.

This table has eight columns:

• Ban name - This is the username of the member who was banned.
• Notes - Here, you can place any special notes about the ban, which moderators or administrators want to share privately with each other.
• Reason - This is what the banned member was told was the reason they were banned.
• Added - This is the date of the banning.
• Expires - This is when the ban will expire, if it will expire.
• Triggers - This setting is for any or all of four kinds of data which are watched for by the software, to determine when a banned member tries to visit: IP address, Membername, Email Address, Hostname (owner of the email address domain).
• Actions - This is the severity of the ban: full, partial, or how partial.
• checkbox - This is used to remove items from this table, by clicking Remove Selected button. There is no button to clear this log all at once. However, by clicking the checkbox in the column title area, it checks all the boxes in the table. Then Remove Selected button has the same effect.

Add New Ban

This page allows you to add new bans to members of your forum. When you need to put a ban on someone you can put a ban on one of more of the following: their IP, hostname, email address, or username.

• Ban name - Enter a name you want to give to the ban. Think of it like a topic subject.
• Expiration - You can set bans to forever or just a limited time. If you wish to just punish someone temporarily, use the "Ban will expire after x day(s)" feature. If you would like to ban some one indefinitely set the ban to never expire.
• Reason - Reason for ban, to be displayed to banned member.
• Notes - Notes that may assist other staff members.
• Restriction - What type of ban this trigger will apply when conditions are met for the ban.
  • Full Ban - When you put a full ban or restriction on a user, they will not have the right to visit your site. This means they cannot read, register, or post on your site. If you really want to get rid of a user, this is the best option.
  • Partial Ban - Will ban the member from specific areas as defined below:
    • Cannot post - If you put a post restriction/ban on an IP, hostname, e-mail, or username, you take away the right to post. This allows them to visit your site, but that is about it. This is useful if you just want to stop them from posting, but allow them to visit your forum.
    • Cannot register -When you put a registration restriction/ban on an IP, hostname, e-mail, or username you take away the right to register on your forum. If they currently have an account on your forum they will be able to use it, however, they will not be able to register a new one. This type of restriction or ban is helpful if you have someone who registers multiple times.
    • Cannot login - Prevents the user from logging in.
• Added - When the ban was made.
• Expires - When the ban will no longer take effect.
• Triggers - Conditions where the ban can be applied and the ban restrictions will be put in place.
  • Ban with IP - To ban a user by their IP you need all or part of it. You can usually obtain this from your forum. See user tracking for further information. A complete IP will always have four sections of numbers (127.0.0.1 is an example). Inputting their full IP for a ban is okay, but is not always useful if this user has a dynamic IP or dial up. If you ban their IP, and they subsequently log in successfully, they probably have a dynamic IP or dial up. However, most ISPs, even if they are dynamic, start with the same numbers (127.0 for example). If you put a ban on a user with the IP 127.0.0.1, and the next day they show up with the IP 127.0.0.2, the first few numbers are the same. You can, therefore, still ban them. Instead of banning their full IP, ban part of it. Type in, for example, 127.0.0.* instead of the full IP. This works in most cases but some users' IPs still change. This also does not stop them from using a proxy to visit your website.
  • Ban with a Hostname - A hostname is a string of characters used to identify a particular computer system. Selecting this option will ban the hostname of the user.
  • Ban by Email Address - You can also ban a user by their e-mail address. You can do this in two ways. You can ban them by their full e-mail address or by part of their e-mail address. Banning a user by their full e-mail address is usually sufficient. Sometimes, however, a user may have numerous e-mail addresses. In this case, instead of typing in their full e-mail address type in something like *@hotmail.com. This works if they use a custom e-mail service which is not used by many people, but if you put an e-mail ban on large e-mail providers like hotmail and gmail nobody using these e-mail addresses will be able to get past the ban.
  • Ban By Username - To ban some one by their username, just type in their username. This will prevent the member from rejoining with that name; however, that member could register with another username. Keep in mind if a user is banned by username and their account is deleted the ban is deleted along with it as the username no longer exists, so banning by username may not be the best option.
• Actions - Shows a link to modify the ban.

Browse Ban Triggers

This shows all the ban triggers on your forum. The default page shows all of the ban triggers by IP address. You can display ban triggers by hostname, e-mail, or username by clicking on one of the following links:

IP | Hostname | Email | Username

If you are viewing IP bans, for example, it will list the banned IP addresses; whereas, if you are viewing e-mail bans, you will see a list of banned email addresses. Next to this is the ban name and the number of hits the ban has. The last column with the checkbox is if you want to select any bans to remove using the the "Remove selected ban triggers" button.

Ban Log

This page shows a list of all of the users you have banned. It lists their IP, e-mail address, username, and date when they were banned.

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