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General discussion

Can a user be ip banned on cnet.com forums?

Mar 7, 2007 4:29AM PST

I have been wondering this for a long time. I was kind of curious if cnet could do it or not?

Discussion is locked

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(NT) The forum software (Jive Forums) does indeed support it.
Mar 7, 2007 4:47AM PST
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Thank you.
Mar 7, 2007 5:02AM PST

I was kind of curious if moderators could ip ban users, looks like you can. Not that I was going to give you a hard time, I was just wondering about it. Thank you.

Michelle

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CNet owns the forums. The owners and their representatives..
Mar 7, 2007 8:37AM PST

...can "ban" anyone or anything for any reason for any action on your part at their pleasure and the owners/managers need no reason for that action....not that they would do that, but you would have no legitimate complaint nor any legitimate standing to "give them a hard time" if the owners or their representatives elected to do that.

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No, but...
Mar 7, 2007 9:04AM PST

Bans can only be issued by forum administrators, which at this time is limited to just Lee. However, we can make recommendations, which Lee takes quite seriously.

John

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Why Jive? Isn't there phpbb & Simple Machines?
Mar 9, 2007 7:29PM PST

While my title is a question, I also like to know what do have to do to get banned, like what measures are needed for an administrator to decide to ban a IP address? and since most people have Dynamic IP, IP address will change on each boot up with the modem, what will you do then?

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Why Jive.
Mar 9, 2007 11:23PM PST

That was answered in former posts. Basically the answer revolved around their committee with issues that you can imagine and would be true. The most often quoted item is how jive can morph the forums to match Cnet's other portals.

As to banning, it works so why fret about it.

Bob

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Well...
Mar 9, 2007 11:24PM PST

Some years ago Cnet was shopping for new software for these forums, and asked for public input. There were no strong arguments either way at that time, so they simply used the same software they had implemented on other Cnet-run sites, Jive. Then, back in October, Cnet upgraded to the latest version of Jive, overhauling these forums and adding a couple of new features including the viewing options. There have been suggestions now and then of changing the forum software to VBulletin, BulletinBoard, IP.Board, or something else that's a 'little more powerful,' but due to the time and cost of actually switching the forum software, as well as that required to 'train' all of the employees, they have thus far decided to remain with the current implementation.

As to banning, I don't know if it has even been performed here in the Cnet forums. Generally just banning a username or e-mail address is sufficient, but IP banning may be attempted if a spammer continuously creates new accounts. As you said, though, dynamic IP addresses would defeat the purpose, as would proxy servers. In addition, it's possible that someone else may be unable to access the forums because the IP address he/she was assigned was previously used by a banned spammer. Thus, it it is only something that should be used in very specific circumstances with its follies clearly understood.

John

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A short answer
Mar 11, 2007 9:27PM PDT
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TOS
Mar 12, 2007 2:34PM PDT

Thank you for posting a link to the TOS.