The discussion revolves around permanently banning users on a forum. dfabulich inquires about the possibility of doing so, noting that the current “suspend” option only allows for a fixed number of days. While suspending for a large number of days (e.g., 99999 days) effectively achieves a permanent ban, dfabulich and Silvanus agree that this approach can be ridiculed by trolls. dfabulich suggests displaying “lifetime ban” instead of the exact duration for bans exceeding 100 years. Falco notes that other platforms also use high-duration bans and argues that hiding the time period for bans over 50 years could be a solution, although it may not be a high priority.
Is it possible to permanently ban someone? I see a the option to “suspend” someone for a fixed number of days, but no way to make a ban permanent.
I think the answer is “no, but you can just suspend them for 99999 days or whatever,” but I bring it up because we’ve seen cases where folks are coming to our forum to troll for lulz; when they get suspended until the year 2290 they screenshot it to their origin forum to laugh about it. (Look how ridiculous they are! They banned me for 200 years!)
And while I can certainly endure being laughed at on another forum, I feel that banning someone in a silly/humorous way encourages more attempts.
(Maybe just change the message when the ban is > 100 years to say “lifetime ban”?)
You’re right. The button for suspend is possible when a reason is given, but clicking it is impossible except for a certain number of days (1-99999). 99999 works for a permanent ban, but looks bad, because in public profile it says that ban is until 2290 or so…
