Discouraged Users

[JadedHeart]

I love it!!! Is it for real?

Edit: I meant "Discouraged", my "a" sticks sometimes.

 

[Peggy]

Peggy, I'm so glad you popped up again. You just reminded me of a missing feature you've taught me about in the past. The ignore feature.

Why thank you Shelby, so nice to see you again, as well.

 

[D.O.A.]

I find it odd that the developers spent time and resources adding this feature into the Beta and not an easy way of adding new BB Codes or the ability to upload Smilies or other features I'd consider fundamental/basic to forum administration. This was clearly a pet project, which is fine, but seems to go against the entire philosophy of keeping things simple.

yeah and adding that login javascript slider pushed back custom user profile pages, more valuable time wasted, wtf xenforo

 

[psTubble27]

The XenForo 'discourager', in the same way as 'Miserable Users', to which it clearly owes its existence is not supposed to be a way for site staff to 'tease' users.

I wrote the code to support the discourager in a little more than an hour.

If you don't like it, don't use it. Others will, and it is for their convenience that the feature exists. I shall say no more on the matter.

Are you kidding me, only an hour for such an amazing feature? :-O

Btw, is there a nicely formatted preview (for example a Have You Seen... video), for the Discouragement feature? I remember seeing it somewhere, but now for the life of me, can't find it -- I want to show it to some prospective xF purchasers.

 

[Carlos]

It only took me a few seconds to discourage people. I love it.

A ban is a ban. A temporary ban is a temporary ban. But what is this? Why would anyone (professional) want to torment an unwanted user in hopes to have them leave the forum, rather than banning them: the sure-fire way of dealing with the problem? The only answer I have is that they are 1) unprofessional and 2) immature, doing it for entertainment.

Um. I don't think so, the majority of users want to come back to the forum, and troll. So Discouraged is a GREAT feature to have. GREAT!

If you don't want to deal with the banned member anymore, might as well give that discouraged feature a spin. So they can troll another website.

 

[DRE]

I just recently used it on a member who goes into my site's tinychat and tells people not to post on my site etc. I was told they were saying that by several members. Instead of arguing with the member since I personally haven't seen them say it and because tinychat does not record audio, I just went ahead and discouraged their account. I've never really used this feature before but watching them login and not be able to post has entertained me immensely. Thanks Xenforo <3

 

[DRE]

ACP -> Options -> Visitor Discouragement

Or, if you'd just prefer the URL: domain.com/admin.php?options/list/discourager

THANKS!

 

[DRE]

When you ban someone you usually have to give a reason or a reason is encouraged. Discouraging users circumvents this. When the disruptive behavior is obvious but not particularly breaking the rules and not even worth sending a warning because you know that person will ignore it, just go ahead and jack their account up.

 

[Sinsational]

is it possible to prevent non-super Admins to have the ability to discourage?

 

[DRE]

is it possible to prevent non-super Admins to have the ability to discourage?

Yeah. My moderators have discouraged users before. They were doing it when I completely forgot the existence of that feature. It wasn't until I was on some other forum chilling and this guy hit me up telling me he couldn't post, I went to investigate and could not figure out why he couldn't post. It took me awhile to realize a moderator discouraged him lmaooooo. So yeah they can definitely use it. They discouraged him each time he created a new account instead of banning him. I'm only just now using it, several months later.

 

[Sinsational]

Oh dear

and I could also remove this ability from the other admins as well who are NOT super admin aka me? I mean i can remove it from standard admins and not just moderators?

 

[DRE]

I discouraged someone AND HE IS STILL POSTING LMAOO WTF???

 

[Blue]

I discouraged someone AND HE IS STILL POSTING LMAOO WTF???

Crank it up! Increase the values.

 

[mrGTB]

By that logic, I should be able to go to the list of add-ons on vBulletin.org, sorted by most installs, and expect to see the top modifications included in XenForo. Such is obviously not the case, so the fact that it's a popular feature really isn't a basis for including it.


Now, I'm not trying to startle the bees in the hive, so to speak, but I just feel that the way this feature attempts to achieve its intended purpose is highly unprofessional and lacks all tact. The features you mentioned above are not unprofessional, because they are clean-cut and "cut right to the chase" by simply doing what they're intended to do: keep unwanted users out. The "discouraged users" feature, on the other hand, goes around the issue by mocking and teasing the user in hopes that they give up. There's a difference between keeping a user out and annoying them to the point where they give up. One is professional, the latter is not.

If my cousin who has a key to my house comes in everyday and carelessly trashes the place, leaving it in shambles, I'd want them out. I'm not going to build a maze around my property in hopes that they get frustrated and leave. I'm going to change my locks so their key no longer works.

Childish features don't belong in what is a professional, efficient product. That's just my opinion. I'm not saying that I'm going to boycott XenForo now because of this one feature; I'm merely noting that I was surprised to see such a controversial feature implemented.

I think your post is well said, but was thinking about something reading it. Doesn't vBulletin let you do temp bans for a set period of time, rather than using a permanent life ban "1 day, 2 days, 1 week, whatever set". Now isn't that in a way toying with a person, annoying them? You've been a bad boy so I'll ban you for a day, do it again and I'll ban you for 2 days, and so on. How professional is that really?

Also, what about the "Warning System", there nothing more childish than that for annoying a person. "You have just received an infraction, it will last 2 months". And to make matters worse, if you've ever had an infraction on vB.org. Once expired it still remains listed you had one. Was that someone's idea of a joke, to leave it in there still "many years later" that you once did have 30 infractions - but hey it was 60 years ago now?

Most of the banning/warning systems can be used in a very childish unprofessional way. Not just XenForo, pretty much all advanced forum software. It's all down to the forum owner in the end how they chooses to use it "or not". I see your point, when you say the Discouraged User feature plays with people rather than just putting a ban in place.

However, the problem with an instant ban, some will just use a proxy or change their IP if on dial-up to continue posting right away under a new account. At least with the Discouraged User feature they don't get banned to know what's really going on, they just start having issues on your site unaware for the most part what's happening. That to me is a better method of dealing with trolls, simple because it leaves them guessing. It will actually slow them down from countering it, like they would a ban because they know instantly.

 

[DRE]

Crank it up! Increase the values.

Oh yeah forgot about that. +1

 

[Sterling]

Now, I'm not trying to startle the bees in the hive, so to speak, but I just feel that the way this feature attempts to achieve its intended purpose is highly unprofessional and lacks all tact. The features you mentioned above are not unprofessional, because they are clean-cut and "cut right to the chase" by simply doing what they're intended to do: keep unwanted users out. The "discouraged users" feature, on the other hand, goes around the issue by mocking and teasing the user in hopes that they give up. There's a difference between keeping a user out and annoying them to the point where they give up. One is professional, the latter is not.

If my cousin who has a key to my house comes in everyday and carelessly trashes the place, leaving it in shambles, I'd want them out. I'm not going to build a maze around my property in hopes that they get frustrated and leave. I'm going to change my locks so their key no longer works.

Childish features don't belong in what is a professional, efficient product. That's just my opinion. I'm not saying that I'm going to boycott XenForo now because of this one feature; I'm merely noting that I was surprised to see such a controversial feature implemented.

Extreme situations call for extreme measures. That's how this feature should be used - to get rid of extremely annoying users only. I had a particular user on my VB forum whom routinely insulted others, flamed my site and its users through his blog, etc. I warned him many times, temp banned him, and eventually perma-banned him. He kept coming back under a new username/IP. Reality is, you can't simply "take the key away" from these people. It just doesn't work like that.

If your cousin kept coming back to your house by breaking in - would you eventually go to extreme measures to keep him out? I bet you would!

 

[goldframedoor]

Extreme situations call for extreme measures. That's how this feature should be used - to get rid of extremely annoying users only. I had a particular user on my VB forum whom routinely insulted others, flamed my site and its users through his blog, etc. I warned him many times, temp banned him, and eventually perma-banned him. He kept coming back under a new username/IP. Reality is, you can't simply "take the key away" from these people. It just doesn't work like that.

If your cousin kept coming back to your house by breaking in - would you eventually go to extreme measures to keep him out? I bet you would!

Maybe you should start charging a verification fee during sign up to "discourage" potential trouble makers, just like what a certain showbiz and media website did with it's forums at one point!