Forum: Line Through Member Name Meaning

[DragonPetter]

What does it mean when a member's name has a line through it?

 

[Evo]

What does it mean when a member's name has a line through it?

They've been banned.

 

[DragonPetter]

Is that the only reason? Thanks for the answer

 

[Evo]

Is that the only reason? Thanks for the answer

Yes, it's the only reason.

 

[DragonPetter]

Alright, thanks again.

 

[micromass]

Note that there are several ways a user can be banned:

1) A user may be banned temporarily. Usually (but not always), a user is banned for 10 days after he accumulated 8 infraction points.

2) A user may be banned permanently. This happens after a user accumulated 10 infraction points.

3) A user may have requested a ban.

A user may be banned for any of these 3 reasons.

 

[drizzle]

4) A user may get banned even before s/he types a single word.

[this happens only if you create more than one account, especially if they're of the same IP address]

 

[Borek]

4) A user may get banned even before s/he types a single word.

[this happens only if you create more than one account, especially if they're of the same IP address]

That's not the only possibility. It can also happen if you register with an obviously inappropriate nick.

In general there are many ways someone can themselves banned. We have a list of these reasons, it is called forum rules.

 

[lisab]

How can I ban thee? Let me count the ways.
Should thou fuss, clash, or fight
I ban thee to keep thee from our sight
To keep this forum an safe and fun place.
Behold the troll, who thinks himself clever:
In Politics and World Affairs, be polite!
If thy fiery passions go too left, or too right,
I ban the ten days or maybe forever.
Behold the crack’d pot compelled to abuse
This good forum to spread outlandish faith:
Thy user rights thou will eternally lose
Left to wander the innerwebs a homeless wraith.
Yet thou may appeal – and, if Greg choose,
Thou shall be reprieved from forum death.

 

[Evo]

How can I ban thee? Let me count the ways.
Should thou fuss, clash, or fight
I ban thee to keep thee from our sight
To keep this forum an safe and fun place.
Behold the troll, who thinks himself clever:
In Politics and World Affairs, be polite!
If thy fiery passions go too left, or too right,
I ban the ten days or maybe forever.
Behold the crack’d pot compelled to abuse
This good forum to spread outlandish faith:
Thy user rights thou will eternally lose
Left to wander the innerwebs a homeless wraith.
Yet thou may appeal – and, if Greg choose,
Thou shall be reprieved from forum death.

Excellent!

 

[micromass]

How can I ban thee? Let me count the ways.
Should thou fuss, clash, or fight
I ban thee to keep thee from our sight
To keep this forum an safe and fun place.
Behold the troll, who thinks himself clever:
In Politics and World Affairs, be polite!
If thy fiery passions go too left, or too right,
I ban the ten days or maybe forever.
Behold the crack’d pot compelled to abuse
This good forum to spread outlandish faith:
Thy user rights thou will eternally lose
Left to wander the innerwebs a homeless wraith.
Yet thou may appeal – and, if Greg choose,
Thou shall be reprieved from forum death.

Wow, wonderful!

 

[D H]

How can I ban thee? Let me count the ways.
Should thou fuss, clash, or fight
I ban thee to keep thee from our sight
To keep this forum an safe and fun place.
Behold the troll, who thinks himself clever:
In Politics and World Affairs, be polite!
If thy fiery passions go too left, or too right,
I ban the ten days or maybe forever.
Behold the crack’d pot compelled to abuse
This good forum to spread outlandish faith:
Thy user rights thou will eternally lose
Left to wander the innerwebs a homeless wraith.
Yet thou may appeal – and, if Greg choose,
Thou shall be reprieved from forum death.

Perfect!

Well, almost. Add a line about posting spam links to a site where you can watch the latest TV shows and then it would be perfect!

 

[PAllen]

4) A user may get banned even before s/he types a single word.

[this happens only if you create more than one account, especially if they're of the same IP address]

What happens if two family members, often sharing a common computer, both want to participate in PF? (I don't know of such case, but do know of a case where this created issues on a chess site) It seems unfortunate to rule this out.

 

[micromass]

What happens if two family members, often sharing a common computer, both want to participate in PF? (I don't know of such case, but do know of a case where this created issues on a chess site) It seems unfortunate to rule this out.

It happens quite a lot here. We usually send something to the user asking them if they are related.
It would be nice if the users themselves send us something about them being relate, but this rarely happens.

 

[DrGreg]

[this happens only if you create more than one account, especially if they're of the same IP address]

People using the same IP address (not simultaneously) could just be two totally unrelated persons who use the same Internet Service Provider. My IP address changes every day.

 

[dlgoff]

How can I ban thee? Let me count the ways.
Should thou fuss, clash, or fight
I ban thee to keep thee from our sight
To keep this forum an safe and fun place.
Behold the troll, who thinks himself clever:
In Politics and World Affairs, be polite!
If thy fiery passions go too left, or too right,
I ban the ten days or maybe forever.
Behold the crack’d pot compelled to abuse
This good forum to spread outlandish faith:
Thy user rights thou will eternally lose
Left to wander the innerwebs a homeless wraith.
Yet thou may appeal – and, if Greg choose,
Thou shall be reprieved from forum death.

If you weren't already gold, you should be.

 

[dlgoff]

My IP address changes every day.

Ban him.

 

[drizzle]

Which brings another question: what if the IP address is blocked?

 

[Evo]

Which brings another question: what if the IP address is blocked?

That blocks them if they have a static IP.

 

[rbj]

so who polices the police here?

 

[micromass]

so who polices the police here?

All mentor action can be seen and reviewed by other mentors. So if one mentor does something wrong, then the other mentors will correct him.
In particular, Greg sees everything we do and can correct us if necessary. Complaints can always be sent to other mentors or Greg.

So we are policed by the other mentors. And if necessary, we are policed by Greg.

And who polices Greg?? Nobody needs to, because it's his forum.

 

[D H]

so who polices the police here?

There's a hierarchy amongst us police, mentors < admins < Greg. A rogue mentor can be removed by an admin or Greg, a rogue admin can be removed by Greg. A rogue Greg? Well, it's his site.

We do not act unilaterally except in the most obvious of cases: Spammers, hackers, sockpuppets of previously banned members, the most obvious of cranks, and people who post or PM the most incredibly vile/vulgar/threatening garbage. Otherwise we work to a consensus before taking action. In general, the more extreme the action (banning someone is most extreme), the more we look for consensus.

 

[tiny-tim]

… And who polices Greg??

Greg'sDad ?

 

[Evo]

There's a hierarchy amongst us police, mentors < admins < Greg. A rogue mentor can be removed by an admin or Greg, a rogue admin can be removed by Greg. A rogue Greg? Well, it's his site.

We do not act unilaterally except in the most obvious of cases: Spammers, hackers, sockpuppets of previously banned members, the most obvious of cranks, and people who post or PM the most incredibly vile/vulgar/threatening garbage. Otherwise we work to a consensus before taking action. In general, the more extreme the action (banning someone is most extreme), the more we look for consensus.

Actually, the mentors and "admins" are the same, admins are not above mentors, Admins can approve passwords, reboot the server, and ban specific IP addresses. Aside from this they are the same as mentors. The hierarchy is mentors/admins < Greg. Greg is the only one that can overide a mentor/admin.

The admins just have the ability to do some of the technical stuff so that we don't have to try to reach Greg every time we need something done.

Micro is correct, the mentors (this includes admins) do a good job of policing ourselves. Greg is the Police Chief.

 

[DragonPetter]

I only asked because someone who is respected in the physics field (no, I will not reveal the identity) and who is also very helpful on this forum may have received a ban, and I was hoping it was a mistake.

 

[Evo]

I only asked because someone who is respected in the physics field (no, I will not reveal the identity) and who is also very helpful on this forum may have received a ban, and I was hoping it was a mistake.

I'm not aware of anyone like that being banned. Can you hit the report button and tell us the name you are concerned about? The report only goes to the mentors and perhaps we can privately answer your question.

 

[Saitama]

I too have one question. Even if some members are banned, why they are shown in the "Active users" list on the home page?

Also, a few days ago, my IP was banned for a few hours, i even sent a message regarding this and this happened twice. I did not receive any reply too.

 

[Evo]

I too have one question. Even if some members are banned, why they are shown in the "Active users" list on the home page?

Even though they were banned, they're still lurking.

Also, a few days ago, my IP was banned for a few hours, i even sent a message regarding this and this happened twice. I did not receive any reply too.

A few days days ago, the server was down for a couple of hours and no one could get in. You have no bans on your record.

 

[Saitama]

You have no bans on your record.

Oh maybe but I was greeted with a message "Sorry, the administrator has banned your IP address. Click here to send a message.".

 

[Borek]

Oh maybe but I was greeted with a message "Sorry, the administrator has banned your IP address. Click here to send a message.".

Then could be you are assigned IP dynamically and you happened to be assign an IP that was earlier used by a banned spammer.

 

[Astronuc]

I too have one question. Even if some members are banned, why they are shown in the "Active users" list on the home page?

Also, a few days ago, my IP was banned for a few hours, i even sent a message regarding this and this happened twice. I did not receive any reply too.

Sorry about that!

Then could be you are assigned IP dynamically and you happened to be assign an IP that was earlier used by a banned spammer.

That is the case.

Some ISPs are used by a lot of spammers. We try to block the spammers without disrupting access of legitimate members. And sometimes, members are assigned IP addresses that we have blocked because of spammers.

 

[DragonPetter]

I'm not aware of anyone like that being banned. Can you hit the report button and tell us the name you are concerned about? The report only goes to the mentors and perhaps we can privately answer your question.

I hit the report button last week, but never got any feedback. Did mods receive my report or should I not expect a reply from someone about my report? The user of whom I was concerned about still appears to be banned.