How to give a forum member a "time Out"

[GlennLever]

I have a member on the forum that has been warned several times about is abrasive attitude in his responses.

Is there a way to remove his privileges for a period of time and then reinstate him?

[Kindred]

Ban him for a defined time period

[aegersz]

because i have a lost member through bannings and who come back with this attitude of disbelief (and even more abrasive, sometimes), it's best to tell them exactly why and for how long. I suggest making it short, like for a week and see if their attitude changes and then maybe for a month if it happens again.

we publish a list of bannings so everybody else knows where such-and-such went.

I like the "Watched" label on their avatar frame and you can also opt for the lesser infraction which is to up their warning level so that their posts have to be moderated first. SMF has some great but sometimes hard to understand features in the area (see below).

my site is a tricky one and a lot are very touchy, it goes with the territory.

I have a knowledge base (mod) where i publish instructions for regular members, moderators and then admins; this is quick guide to the warning system:

Locate the member's Profile > Actions > Issue a warning then click on the + on the Warning Level bar until you reach 10 % (note: you can tailor this but this is my setting, yours may be different).

Then populate the Reason for Warning and send a notification (see check box etc.) if you want but isn't not necessary to effect the watch.

They now have  (!) Watched in their avatar frame.

If keep increasing the Warning Level bar then you will disable the member further and you will be able to send their posts for moderation.

[efk]

From my experience, the best way to punish user is to limit him or to take from him something what is valuable for him. That is the most shocking change for user and it directly affect his daily habits. You can create a specific post based membergroup where members will have to wait for their posts to be approved, limited in some way with availability of forum features, etc. Also you can do a lot with Permissions profiles. It is very important that user wanna keep his account and it can mean a war to take account from him (full ban).
So if you don't want to ban/lose members or to see their new nicknames, it can be like explained above or first you can go with forum warning (!) without points, then with points so user can see that some action is taken against him, then limited bans, but again if he decide to go with new forum account... Also limit new accounts to wait for post moderation, 5, 10 posts...

[GlennLever]

Sent the user a message.

He did not like it and removed himself from the forum.

Thanks