What do you guys do with troubleshome users? I have had users on my site that just lurk, I have had them disrupt the forums, curse and swear in posts, send a ton of private messages, trash my calendar, etc. short of locking down the site so that nobody can get in, what do I do?

Set up a form of rules of things you feel should not be allowed, publically announce it. This is easier to explain if somebody feels to discuss his ban with you - You can simply point to the rules!

Anyway, I manage yaXay.com. I get to deal with alot of annoying people, I temporary ban alot - I consider that a warning to them to not do it again or to cool down. You basically always have to use your judgement to determine the punishment of the violation.

I have my rules posted. but sometimes people are just rotten to the core. I hate banning people. Plus my site is a role playing site and paople have multiple accounts. It is a real pain to find all the accounts they are using. I cannot just block the ip address as many times other users have that ip occasionally too.

You will always have people with attitude! Make the rules clear and tell them the action that you will take against the violator!

What do you guys do with troubleshome users? I have had users on my site that just lurk, I have had them disrupt the forums, curse and swear in posts, send a ton of private messages, trash my calendar, etc. short of locking down the site so that nobody can get in, what do I do?
Setting up multiple additional usergroups helps newcomers to have to make an effort to make new posts and grow in permissions. This already helps filter out the spammers and abusers. Those who continue are easily spotted then and staff picks up by placing a ban.

What do you guys do with troubleshome users? I have had users on my site that just lurk, I have had them disrupt the forums, curse and swear in posts, send a ton of private messages, trash my calendar, etc. short of locking down the site so that nobody can get in, what do I do?


There are two additional suggestions you can try that haven't been mentioned yet...


1. Tachy Goes to Coventry

This will save you from banning them - and will hopefully get them bored of your board (yes, I know...), so that they just go away.


2. Put them on Probation.

Set up an additional usergroup for users that have been put on Probation. Users in this usergroup have all messages moderated. So you can tell them that until they clean up their act, they will not be allowed to post indescriminately. In the meantime, if they write up a reasonable post, you can approve it and let it go. After a certain amount of time/posts where they are behaving, you can remove them from Probation.

In addition, my personal recommendation for a proper Probation setup is to make it so that the only person they can PM is you. This way, they can't harass anyone else via PM, but you still allow them a means of contacting you to discuss terms, so to speak. Alternately, you can deny them all PM functionality, but create an additional Subboard that is only accessable by users on Probation and your Staff. This way, they can discuss issues with you there - and it will be hidden from regular members. The best way to set this up is to make it so that they can't see anyone else's threads - only their own. This way, any given user on Probation will not be able to interfere (or be interfered with) by another user on Probation.



Anyway, these are a couple of additional choices you might want to consider. :)

I would definitely put them in a probation user group like other people have suggested. I would also make sure that you have it set to confirm email addresses and only one account per email address, as these defaults are set to be off.

I'd say more, but everyone else already has said it! :)

I have my rules posted. but sometimes people are just rotten to the core. I hate banning people. Plus my site is a role playing site and paople have multiple accounts. It is a real pain to find all the accounts they are using. I cannot just block the ip address as many times other users have that ip occasionally too.

have you tried talking to them to see what they are angry about?