How accurately can you tell whose online? Can you identify down to a specific IP address? My impression is not likely, since many providers provide dynamic IP addressing, but I thought I'd ask the question. While I'm at it, do all the moderators have the ability if it exists?

The thought is users who have been banned.

This board is among the most flexible and feature rich sites out there. Frankly I use the heck out of it, maybe too much. I would definitely be willing to contribute financially if the need arose, but so far previous threads concerning financial donations have been a firm NO!. I treat this site as my personal web page.

Just as the features this site offers is so unusual banning is done very differently. The vast majority of sites have ban durations, starting with a few days going up to a year. For the most part this site if you manage to get yourself banned it is permanent, with very few exceptions. You have to really, really push it to get banned, but it still occasionally happens.

I occasionally see Ratch on electrotech, I have a suspicion several people who have been banned have come back here under a new name. I know who they are, names aren't important. As long as they behave themselves I don't care, it takes pretty antisocial behavior to get banned in the first place.

So this is basically just out of curiosity, if a former user did come back could we tell?

Has any thought been given for a duration for bans in general?

 

I've only been active for a few weeks but from what I've seen this forum tends to stick to the serious and would only rarely require that someone be banned.

The forum I frequent which pertains to the particular type of motorcycle I own has no moderation at all and really doesn't need it, everybody pretty well tends to the sharing of knowledge in a mature way regardless of their age as we all share a common ground. Same goes for the forum on one of my cars. I've seen a few arguments come up in there from time to time but the other active posters usually have them calmed down in short order.