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 individual can be possibly 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
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.