Do you allow ban appeals from your members?

[AjayJunkies]

Banning is something that is usually done as a last resort and is often not reversible but in some cases, a ban can be given to a member that was not warranted and the need of some kind of appeal system essential.

When you ban members, do you have an appeal system? If you do, how often does it get used?

 

[Mr Lucky]

and is often not reversible

It is always reversible in regard to xenForo. See ACP Users > actions > Lift ban

 

[Suzanne O]

Nup. Once somebody is banned they stay banned. They're account gets deleted and their ip address gets banned.

 

[bennylava]

You could consider just giving them a 1 month ban. Long enough to make em think twice next time. If they do it again, permanent.

 

[Harpers Tate]

I'll categorise users thus:

• obvious bans - spammers, crooks, serial miscreants and so on. At the point of banning, that decision is all but final. We don't normally delete such accounts so in reality they could be restored, but that is rare.
• less obvious cases. Define these as you will.

In this case we use a bespoke UserGroup we call "Suspended". We can use Warnings to accumulate points and "promote" (demote in fact) users into a secondary usergroup with very restricted permissions. Thus we can offer this tool to team members who do not have the permission to outright ban. And it means that those who attract warnings with frequency end up suspended as a cumulative effect, as well as those who are suspended immediately after their misdeed.

Members with the Suspended usergroup cannot interact with the forum beyond reading. Most other permissions are removed. In our case we do allow them to (a) use Conversations and (b) interact with a single forum node the purpose of which is precisely to allow them a vehicle to appeal a decision. That forum's permissions are set such that only a thread originator and select team members can see a thread.

The outcome of a suspension is always a review, whether appealed or not. And the outcome of the review (by someone more senior) will be to extend the suspension to a ban,or to lift it, often after a period of time "off". Thus, suspension is always temporary, and easily reversible.