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Posted: 2/13/04 13:12 I've Been BANNED - Why and what can I do about it?
First, let me say this clearly.... ezboard does not control and will not control what ezOps, admins or mods do at their boards unless it violates our Terms of Use.
The ezOp of any board is has the last and final say of who gets to post, period. It's his or her board, and ezboard will not tell them how to run it. If you want to know why you were banned, contact the ezOp and ask.
That being made clear, here are some facts you should know about being banned:
1) Simply not being able to log onto the board does not mean you are banned. If you are truly banned, you will see a "you are banned" message whenever you try to view the board.
2) It is possible that you were accidently banned if they have banned someone else by IP address. Ask the ezOp or admin to check the ips to see if yours is on it, and remove that from the list. IPs change, and especially with AOL, many members of the same ISP can share the same ones, as they can change everytime you log in.
3) Also, have the admin or ezOp check the banned email list to see if your email is on it.
If you are an ezOp of a board, and was banned by one of your admins:
You can't truly be banned. Check your control center, you should still have access to all controls to unban yourself and to remove the admin who banned you. You can check the security log to see who it was, because no one can delete the security log but you.
If you have been Globally banned from all ezboards, and you don't know why, email legal to have the situation resolved. Use this form: legal form
If I am banned how to I find out how to contact the ezop or an admin?
First try to view the board while logged out of your account. If the board allows unlogged viewing, you can look for contact information. Places to look: the bottom of the board for a contact admin link, if the board has a Community Profile, look for the founder and admins and click on the name for the profile (you will need to login, before you can send a PM), look at posts and look for indications under the username that someone is an admin or ezop and PM one of them.
If the board does require logged in viewing or you get the banned message while logged out, and you have a friend on the board, ask them to find the ezop/admin information.
Try remembering the username of someone from the board and send a PM
If you seem to be caught in an IP ban, try viewing the board from a different computer.
If there is no contact information, it may be that the ezop/admins don't wish to be contacted.
Edited by: ezGoalieAunt at: 10/31/07 20:46
Posted: 2/13/04 14:12 Re: I've Been BANNED - Why and what can I do about it?
Little note from ezLegal: The ONLY reason a global ban will ever be overturned is if the banned account was previously stolen, and the thief's subsequent actions got the account banned. If this is not the case, don't bother with the email to legal. If you really have lost your account due to account theft and the actions of the thief, be prepared to prove it. Only security logs, posts, and other ezboard contents will be accepted as evidence.
Yes, proving one's innocence in this fashion can be incredibly difficult. However, as reports of account theft are rapidly dwindling, we expect that this issue will continue to grow less and less relevant.
Posted: 2/13/04 14:13 Re: I've Been BANNED - Why and what can I do about it?
There is now a feature that is on all ezboards called the Spam Detection System.(SDS) It cannot be turned off and it applies to all users, even admins at their own boards. It is much more leniant that flood control, flood control limits posts to 1 per minute, but you have to post REALLY fast to trigger SDS, like maybe by posting simultaneously in 2 windows or using a third party 'bot' to flood a board. The reason this applies to admin too is that flooding a forum, even your own forum, with rapid consecurtive posts slows down the whole server.
When you trigger the SDS you will get a 1-2 hour temporary global banning. This is a warning to slow down. If you keep doing it and you get enough of those temporary bans in a certain time period, you will get a permanent global ban. So if you get one of the temp bans, then please heed the warning and slow down, posting normally should not trigger the SDS.
There is a new type of spam filter, called Cross Board Spamming. If you get caught by this filter, you will see in your profile the globally banned notice with the reason listed as Cross-Board Spamming
Cross-board spamming is triggered by multiple consecutive posts with identical subject lines. If you are posting the same (legitimate) posts on multiple boards, please alter the subject line slightly to avoid the cross-board spamming ban.
Edited by: ezGoalieAunt at: 10/31/07 20:51
Posted: 2/13/04 14:13 Re: I've Been BANNED - Why and what can I do about it?
If you get a banned message at a board but the admin says that you are not banned there, they cannot seem to get you unbanned, have the admin read this:
Admins: If a user says they are banned but their name does not have the red B by it in all users list, and you cannot find any banned email or names or IPs that correspond to that user:
diagnostic questions
1. does the user get the banned message as soon as they try to view the board while logged in? (i.e. they cannot view the board at all while logged in) But, they CAN view the board logged out? If answer is YES, go to # 4
2. is the user never able to view the board while logged in OR logged out? If answer is yes, go to #5.
3. The user is unable to view the board logged in ir logged out, but this is only sporadic, one day they can view the board, the next day they can't. Or the user gets the banned message when trying to access a specific page on the board.
If this describes the situation, please see # 6.
4. A 'yes' answer to question 1 indicates the user is banned by name and/or email. It is possible for them to be banned this way and NOT show on the list.
Check the banned name list. If they do not show there, unban them manually by typing in their username, checking the radio button for local or global, and then clicking 'unban'.
Next check the banned email list. If their name is not shown there, type in their email, then click 'ban'. Now it shows up on the list. Check the box by that email and click 'unban'.
the user should now be able to view the board while logged in.
*note: if they have any linked accounts, you may also have to unban those names manually.
5. A 'yes' answer to question 2 indicates the user is banned by IP. 7.0 update made banned IPs unable to even view the board. Check the banned IP list, if their IP does not show there, it can still be banned but hidden. To get the hidden banned IP to show:
go to the ban by IP section as if you were going to ban an IP. Leave the IP box blank, and click 'unban'. This should cause any hidden banned IPs to show, and then you can unban them.
6. The user is probably banned by IP, but they have a dynamic IP that changes frequently. The IP can change to a banned IP while they are on your board, for example clicking on a forum name can trigger an IP change to a banned IP. When they go back, the IP changes back. Note that AOL IPs are very dynamic and one AOL user may have hundreds of IPs listed. The same IP may later be assigned to another AOL user. For this reason, I do not reccomend banning AOL Ip's, because innocent users can get caught by it, and the guilty one you wanted to ban will have a new IP very soon and escape your intended banning anyway.
If a user has their IP change when they go to a specific page, they may continue to get the banned message everyt ime they try to go to that page because their computer is giving them a cached version of the page. Clearing the cache should help. Some ISPs such as AOL will also store a visited page in the ISP cache and give that same version of the page to all users of that ISP who visit the same page. If this is happening to several members of your board on the same page, all they can do is wait until the ISP clears their cache.
Edited by: ezGoalieAunt at: 10/7/07 19:46
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