Ban

A ban is an action taken in order to block an addressed machine from accessing a certain area of interest, such as a forum, to hinder an individual's ability to participate in games or forums. This is usually done by testing all connections against a known blacklist of IP address.

Possible Reasons for Banning

An address can be banned due to one or more such actions as the following:

• Persistently harassing others
• Using cheats in games
• Spaming and/or trolling (posting irrelevent materials, acting up, exasperating other individuals continuously)
• Evading an already existing ban placed to block the same individual
• Mounting offensive action (such as a DDoS) against any service

Drawbacks

Bans are not always the best solution to ridding of an individual from a community or place of interest. There are some cons; most notably the following:

• A ban can only lock out a computer address, not the individual (the individual is still free to take advantage of the use of proxies and other computers)
• Long ban lists require much storage and maintenance

Bans can yet be useful during certain instances as a means of discouragement of and prevention from behaving in an agreeably unfavorable manner; most often when an individual is simply not abiding by any crucial guideline of some sort and/or is shaping an unpleasant atmosphere for others.