This guide covers our old ProBoards v4 software. Click here for the ProBoards v5 Help Guide.
Banning members is sometimes necessary to maintain harmony in a forum and can be accomplished with just a few clicks by anyone with administrator privileges.
In the admin panel, click on the Ban Member link in the Manage Members section and you'll be presented with a list of any members currently banned from the message board. You can also add newly banned members on this page. The Ban Members page is divided into 4 columns explained below.
1. Remove Ban
When there are members on the banned list, a check-box will display for each member allowing for early removal of their ban. To do this, check the box next to the members name and click the Update Ban List button. Bans will then be lifted for selected online forum members.
2. Type of Ban
For existing bans, this area displays the type of ban assigned to each member. For new bans, there's a drop-down menu providing the following ban options:
IP Address: The IP Address ban prevents members from logging into the discussion forum using devices associated with the banned IP address. When attempting to login, banned members are shown a message letting them know they've been banned. IP addresses display as blocks of numbers separated by periods, for example; 127.0.0.1.
Member IP addresses can be found in their profiles to the right of the Last Known IP header under the Recent Activity section, and in the bottom-right corner of posts they've made.
Username: When assigned a username ban, members attempting to login with that username will receive a message letting them know they've been banned from the message board and will be logged out of their account automatically.
Email Address: Email address bans are best for members with multiple forum accounts using the same email address. Once an email address has been banned, any account using that email address will receive a message letting them know they've been banned and will automatically be logged out of their account. This will occur for all accounts using that same email address.
3. Username / Email / IP Address
This column will show the usernames, email addresses, and IP addresses of members already banned from the message board. Also, in the empty boxes, you can add the usernames, email addresses, or IP addresses of members you would like to assign new bans to.
4. Expires
For previously banned members, this column will tell you when the ban is set to expire. For new bans, the drop-down boxes allow you to assign ban expiration times which can be from 1 day to permanent.
Expiration times can't be modified once assigned. If you'd like to reset an expiration you'll first need to remove the ban by checking that members box and clicking the Update Ban List button. Then, create a new forum ban for that member with the new expiration date.