I do not quite understand you. If someone insults someone notorious, impersonating someone else, and therefore considered to be persona non grata, and ineffective warnings can be banned, and eventually removed. As one of the administrators on our website have the opportunity to trace the culprit's IP and know who, and under whom the impostor. That's all I greet all
Well I hope I understood you right.. All that stuff about impersonating, that was just a joke between Stuart and myself, you can forget that.
The guy we're talking about was banned lots of times, for behaving badly and yes we can and do of course track him down, his ip and such, his host and all that. But we don't really keep an active eye out, because he's not a problem. More like a joke, really. And easy to get rid off again.
Unless his ISP cuts him off from internet access though - which might happen to a banned member, if official complaints are filed about continued harrassment or such - then he can basically reset his router, use an IP hiding website, and create a new email address, use a new name, and so on. No forum or website can really keep you out if you want to get back on. But that's not what a ban is most suitable for, I'd think the shame involved by having so many bans and having people know you're a troll and have been talking behind their backs and such, would be a worse thing. To a chap with half a mind anyway.
So yeah, we can only block that which we know, obviously. So we can't foresee what new IP address or email address a banned member would come back with. And we do not ban IP ranges on the whole to place a bigger net, because that will potentially penalize other people from a similar region, and would prevent them from registering on, or returning to, the forum.
So, we just wait till such a banned member says hello again, we click on a button or two, and he can enjoy making a whole new account over and over and over again, hiding again, waiting... and always ending up with a ban when he makes himself known. I guess some might think of it as very clever, to defy a ban like that. I personally think it's really sad.
