A Persistant Troll

[pmcd9]

On the forum I administer we have a troll that we can't get rid of.  We've tried banning him and he just gets another account and is back.  We try to feed him as little as possible, but he is persistent and usually gets somebody's goat eventually.

We've been tolerating this guy for a while now, but we would really like him to go away.  Can you make any suggestions that might help us rid ourselves of this unwelcome presence on our board?

[rd]

On the forum I administer we have a troll that we can't get rid of.  We've tried banning him and he just gets another account and is back.  We try to feed him as little as possible, but he is persistent and usually gets somebody's goat eventually.

We've been tolerating this guy for a while now, but we would really like him to go away.  Can you make any suggestions that might help us rid ourselves of this unwelcome presence on our board?

Ban him by checking all the triggers.

Including IP, hostname, etc.

Check to see if he is using a proxy, if he is then ban the proxy and keep banning him till he gives up, don't give him a chance.

This might help you: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2329

[bullbreedluverz]

If they are constantly reregistering place them on post moderation once you find there new account - it can be a bit tedious if they do keep reregistering after a ban but if they can't make posts without your approval then they can't be fed as no1 gets to see there bull******

[wynnyelle]

And I'd report all their IPs to the spam lists, too for stop Forum Spam and stuff.

[mirahalo]

thres a nice mod:  http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2232   I use on my forum

[wynnyelle]

I ran across this mod and didn't install it, figuring it might not work on real problem users. Does it work for you on your forum?

[mirahalo]

yes, but all depends on how you manage your forum,  for example, we have plenty of tolerance to problematic users,  this mod acts slowly, take time to actually work,  so if you don't have that much patience maybe this mod is not for you.

[wynnyelle]

We crack down on'em right away. So might not help us as much Thanks for the advice though! ^_^

[xenovanis]

Very good mod to disencourage trolls
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=2232

If you like playing with them

[mirahalo]

LOL  thats exactly what I suggested a few post above

[xenovanis]

LOL  thats exactly what I suggested a few post above

Sorry, I missed that one 

It's a good mod though, worth mentioning twice.

[kat]

If you know the dickhead's IP, you can get onto his ISP and complain.

That's what we did, with our persistent troll(ess) and we finally got rid of her.

[mirahalo]

her?   I can't picture a female as a troll.

LOL  thats exactly what I suggested a few post above

Sorry, I missed that one 

It's a good mod though, worth mentioning twice.

yeah! I love it!

[kat]

Oh, yeah... Worst troll I ever experienced and she was an evil bi*ch, to go with it.

Trolled a lot sites, too.

[C4G-TK]

her?   I can't picture a female as a troll.

Here...

Does this help?

[mirahalo]

Oh, yeah... Worst troll I ever experienced and she was an evil bi*ch, to go with it.

Trolled a lot sites, too.

wow!


@C4G-TK   yeah, that helps a lil bit 

[Night09]

Just get his IP and ban the whole block range.Ive done this with a few spammers in the past who reregister on an almost similar IP and stops them in their tracks. There was one on some island when  Itraced him so just banned the whole islands IPs.

Long as it isnt going to effect a genuine member then its not likely to impact on your site.

[Ensiferous]

Just get his IP and ban the whole block range.Ive done this with a few spammers in the past who reregister on an almost similar IP and stops them in their tracks. There was one on some island when  Itraced him so just banned the whole islands IPs.

Long as it isnt going to effect a genuine member then its not likely to impact on your site.

This is probably the most stupid advice you could give. IP Banning is rarely the solution, first of all Proxies exist in spades, if a user is persistent you cannot IP ban them. If you do you are likely to block other legitimate users, especially if you block an entire range.

[Night09]

This is probably the most stupid advice you could give.

Tell that to my near 0 spam registration attempts and legitimate members who non have ever had an issue registering.I run a guild site and know exactly who should have an account and would obviously know from the guild list who should have access.In 5 years ive never been contacted once by someone ingame claiming they are blocked trying to access the site and we have had thousands of people over the years.

first of all Proxies exist in spades

Blocking a range can be 2 upwards so dont assume it means thousands.And yes with some effort you can block the majority of proxies attempting to register the whois data can give you an idea of the range to look into.You can download lists of IP's for them too if you use your brain a bit.

So before you post a stupid reply think about it a bit before trying to flame me.I see a lack of any specific help from you contibuting to the OPs question.

[Ensiferous]

Okay. So let me get this straight. You automatically assume that OP has as small community as yours, one that is unlikely to grow without you having had contact with you first. But even if it does then you wouldn't know because the user got a banned message and didn't bother with your guild.

In any normal situation where people might actually visit your forum you would not want to ban IPs. It serves no purpose at all since proxies are so readily available and most people use a dynamic IP so you need to block at least 255 IPs just to block a user. There is a lot of collateral damage this way - and far better ways to handle it.

I've had more than 2 million members pass through my forum now based on their user IDs and in total maybe 3 spam users, all manual and banning their IP certainly didn't help. I have, however, had a ton of people ask me why they are banned despite never having been on the site before. So to me IP banning is insane and I deeply regret doing so early on in the process.

I see a lack of any specific help from you contibuting to the OPs question.

See, I consider helping OP not make a mistake to be great help! And really, calling a suggestion stupid is not flaming, I was not attacking you personally, just your suggestion - please grow a backbone.

[chrishicks]

What I did in this situation was to create a new membergroup and a hidden board. The hidden board was the only board this group could see. Then I took away almost every permission available. When I came across a spammer(close enough to a troll) they ended up in that. I even had a nice Welcome Spammers topic that they could read and nothing more. If they reregistered under another IP I'd let them be until they acted up again. Then repeat the process. They usually gave up after a few tries. Could always try something like that.

[Night09]

@ Ensiferous

If you download lists of proxies and also ban individual ip's and a small range round it your unlikely go gimp a genuine visitors ip but will seriously reduce the availablity of ip's available for spammers. Its unlikely you can block them all and I am not saying you can but it will make things a lot easier if you have a large forums where you dont have to do ip bans constantly to specific ip's

With 4,294,967,296 IPv4 alone and approx 4 billion IPv6 even with a large forum your unlikely to hinder genuine visitors from finding your site basing bans round a few from spammers.

My Backbones fine btw but thank you for your concern.

[Aleksi "Lex" Kilpinen]

@ Ensiferous

If you download lists of proxies and also ban individual ip's and a small range round it you...

... end up seriously damaging your server performance.

[Night09]

I have a dedicated server so not an issue but fair enough.

[Ensiferous]

With 4,294,967,296 IPv4 alone and approx 4 billion IPv6 even with a large forum your unlikely to hinder genuine visitors from finding your site basing bans round a few from spammers.

The funny thing is that I just got an email titled "Why does it say Ime banned". Spelling errors and all. AOL users are often grouped under one IP so they're very likely to share and cause chaos if you ban one of them. Granted my forum is very large, but it's not a requisite.

If you download lists of proxies and also ban individual ip's and a small range round it your unlikely go gimp a genuine visitors ip but will seriously reduce the availablity of ip's available for spammers. Its unlikely you can block them all and I am not saying you can but it will make things a lot easier if you have a large forums where you dont have to do ip bans constantly to specific ip's

Also this is instantly negated by any one using TOR. There are so many IPs available with TOR that it's down right scary, and getting a new one is just clicking a button. You might get rid of amateur users, but anyone who is going to bother with a proxy will easily figure out how to use TOR.

[mirahalo]

What I did in this situation was to create a new membergroup and a hidden board. The hidden board was the only board this group could see. Then I took away almost every permission available. When I came across a spammer(close enough to a troll) they ended up in that. I even had a nice Welcome Spammers topic that they could read and nothing more. If they reregistered under another IP I'd let them be until they acted up again. Then repeat the process. They usually gave up after a few tries. Could always try something like that.

I do the same thing   works fine.