Hi,

We can ban peole in 2 ways:

[1] Ban their account (but of course they can still create a new one)

[2] Ban the IP address they are coming from. This means they are totally banned from the message boards, can't open a new account etc, so long as their IP remains the same. However they could go to an Internet Cafe where they'd have a different IP or similar and post from there. Plus, dependent on their connection to the Internet, their IP might not be fixed anyway, i.e. If they used dial up they'd probably get a new IP quite often which would mean they could be posting from home again soon.

Another issue with banning IP addresses is that you could be banning more than you want to, i.e. You don't really want to ban all the users of a popular Internet cafe, but if you ban the IPs of one person who used that cafe, that's what you end up doing.

I just banned those 2 users you mentioned (thanks) but the reason users do come back after being banned sometimes is that we are hesitent to ban IPs unless we really have to, in case we block access for other users at the same time (we have banned Internet cafes before, and only realised it when another user has said "How come it says I banned when I go to the net cafe on Dame Street?" etc). Doesn't happen often I admit, but this is a problem that could occur more often if we banned IPs more often. Also, I guess it is a time issue - Unless somebody is really causing a lot of trouble, we don't usually get around to investigating them.

I hope this goes someway to explaining how things work, even if it isn't offering any sort of solution really.

Pat x