One for the Mods and Admin - IP Banning

Hi Guys

I'm an administrator for another VB-Forum,
actually I work on several forums, one of them very much like this place.

I've been a member of Phun a lot longer than I've been running vBulletin sites,
I love this place and without it I wouldn't have been able to do the work I do now.

But to why I've written this.

I have an idea for something that could improve the safety of all your and of every member of VB sites like this.

The Idea I have is to share IP Banned members IP Addresses when they have been banned for posted stuff link fake Rapidshare links that steal usernames and passwords,
members who try to push viruses on to the rest of our members etc..

As yourselves the sites I work for put the members safety on the top of their list,
so this would be a great way to stamp out the nobheads who continuously try to con people with bullshit links and try to push unwanted crap.

The way I would see it working would be to have one or two contacts on each of the vBulletin sites who we the Admin can then PM or Email with any members IP address that has been banned, so they can then add them to their Banned IP List.

I.B.D.L
IP Banned Database List


Just an Idea, what do you think. ?
This is the first place I've ran this idea over with, but I will hopefully be asking the same question to as many forums as I can, and maybe if it catches on others will also spread the idea.

 

IMO society is over policed and now your proposing forums be the same? So if i piss off a mod over at you site (even though HE could be the asshole) your proposing that my IP addy be shared here? A load of shite if you ask me, yeah it could stop bad people but it has the potential to be used and abused.

I hope Phun has no act, hand or part in it

 

Banning IPs doesn't do much good, since 90% of the domains are dynamic, means that the bad boy, who posted "illegal" stuff will have a new IP, once he logged out...and a month later you get a regular user who won't be able to join the forum, because he gets the message "your IP is banned".

Happens already now, because we have to ban some IPs due to excessive spam abusage.

 

Some good points there,

For the first reply,
The only IP Addresses that should be logged / reported would be the ones that push viruses and are pushing links to sites that steal usernames and passwords,
Not just normal members who happen to piss a mod off because of a silly argument.
I get members who piss me off all the time and I just do a normal short term ban on them and not a IP ban.

IPs should only be given out by a member of the Admin team and not just a mod, admin members tend to be more clued up on the banning of people than a mod, no offense intended to the mods as they are the ones who tend to do most of the work.

The second reply;
Yes you are right, the real dickheads do change their IP all the time and this we can never get around, but I have, touch wood never encountered a member I have IP banned come back with a different IP and user account and continue to post the same shit.
It is unfortunate that some member will get banned due to someone else using their IP, but this would happen anyway when IP banning.

Both replies are very much valid and Thank you for bringing them up.

The idea I have is still in its early stages and the more input by the guys who know can help structure the idea in to a better way of working.

The final out come of my idea I would like, would be to have a Central Database with the IPs on and a VB hack written that would update all VB forums Banned IP address list automatically.

 

Yeppers, happens all the time. I'm a MOD on another board and I get complaints from good members all the time who don't understand why they are getting phishing messages every time they try to post, I then have to explain to them that some other jerk used that IP to phish and it got banned and now the good member has to release his IP and hope he gets one that isn't banned. Real frustrating for the members, plus yes I can definately see the potential for abuse.

 

Plus, phun has an excellent group of mods who are (usually ) not malicious or vindictive and work for the benefit of the forum. Almost all the major posters post in forum issues if they see anything the mods have missed which really help of things like bad image hosts and phishers as mods can't be expected to hunt through every single thread all day.

 

Consider yourself very fortunate on that.

Exactly and that's why anything harmful is usually only around for minutes instead of hours.