Dealing with troublesome users...

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 6:20 pm

As a new php-nuke admin I have questions on how to deal with "bad" users. Say a user joins up and starts causing trouble on the forums. After repeated warnings, what do you do?

I understand I can ban his IP, but if he is just a home user, say a cable modem user, won't he get a new IP address periodically from his provider? Of course he can just go down to the library or use a friends computer too.

Thanks in advance.

Sells PC To Pay For Divorce Joined: Posts: 5661

there are a few things you can do but you should ask yourself if its worth the headache.
Not anymore.
Sure you can keep track if static or dynamic IP's are used but even then while banning them you cant lock them out for the full 100%.
While your banning them he logs in again using a proxy,or lets a friend register for an account.
Thing is,whenever such a member is behaving badly you can warn them and if they continue you can deactivate the account.
If he wants to continue that behaviour in public its very easy to kick him out again.
Simple said,as long as they shutup they can stay,as soon as they open their mouth again is bye bye.
Something like that... Wink

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 7:58 pm

Ok that is what I always did the last two years with such users.We have many kiddies maybe also same script kiddies. I go to my database and there is the table nuke_user. I change the email and the password of this user so he cannot login anymore and password lost doesn´t also work because of the changed email.
Hitwalker is right. Bye bye is sometimes the best way.
You can also use for your forum some mods e.g. the yellow mod.

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

I agree - and hitwalker and Susann have a lot of experience in these areas (probably more than they would like to have!). The infamous CNB Your Account module has the ability to disable users - better than changing the password, because they may request another one, and it you change the email address they can just signup again. Sure, they can use another email address, but they're wasting THEIR time, not yours. You simply disable and forget.

That said, I usually give at least one warning or reminder and thankfully haven't had many problems on my sites, though the sites are more focused on specific interests and tend to attract more mature audiences.

registered · Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2006 10:13 pm

How does CNB YA stop them from creating another account though?

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 7:22 am

It stops them from creating another account with the same email address, and doesn't allow them to request a password change because the account is disabled. So, they can request another account, but they'll have to go through the trouble of getting another email account to do it. That makes it less convenient for the trouble user than it is for the webmaster, who can easily disable the next account if the user reregisters and continues to cause problems.

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 7:29 am

absolutely right...thats the nice thing of it.
But its not fully secure.
my isp allows me 10 aliasses with my account..
so if i wanted to abuse it i just use another alias and register again,then delete the alias and create another one again,i can continue endless like that.
im sure more people can do this.
Only way to prevent all of this is to use :

<no website>

</no website>

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 9:34 am

True, you can do that - but then the inconvenience is yours, not mine. If a bad user wants to waste his time registering and reregistering...go right ahead. It only takes a few seconds to disable...

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:59 pm

Ah okay, just wondering if it has some kind of special way I didn't know about. Smile