MyBB Community Forums

Indeed, it's complex, but again it's an Idea and not set in stone. I gave myself a headache writing it - it's best to start out with a full idea and break it down to where it is manageable. You wouldn't build a building if you didn't have a design/layout to go from.

What if instead of a new Page (and a Ban ID), when a user is banned, they get the "You're banned" message like normal when they log in, but if they are allowed to try to appeal their ban, on that same page they get a button to click "Apply for Appeal" when the button is clicked, they fill out a form, and then it gets sent to the Mod CP to be approved by whoever has permissions to approve of them.

-#1 feature, they can only submit a ban appeal if they are banned and are allowed to appeal (Through some ACP config or something)
-#2 They can only submit the appeal once - to cut down spam appeals AND they have 1 shot to convince they deserve an appeal.

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(2016-11-15, 08:35 AM)Vanz Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-11-15, 06:21 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]http://prntscr.com/d7fp2b

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I am going to politely ask you to stop posting on my threads, I get highly annoyed when you over analyse everything - and I am not the only one. You've already been Ignored, now please keep off my threads.

DENIED: If you don't want members posting on your thread, you have to stop making thread(s), or create your own forum where you are the BOSS.

(2016-11-15, 02:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]This was originally a plugin request, but I think every forum could use this system. It is configured through the ACP and managed by Staff through the Mod CP. 

Wrong.
Break the forum rules ? suffer the consequences, whether it's suspension or perma-ban. No admin/staff has time to cater to everyone whining (appealing).

They are not "Catering" to everyone. And if they whine through the system, just decline the ban and call it a day. That's like you getting banned right now, losing everything you have posted, earned and obtained in the past 3 + years for reasons not stated when banned. You now have to use the public Ban Appeal forum where anyone can just post on your appeal, bots spam on it, and you now are wasting the Mods time because they have to read the appeal, write a reply, then you reply again and so on until either they say No or Yes to lift the ban. 

OR 

You have to use the Contact Us form, and now your Ban Appeal sits mixed up with other emails that may or may not be spam.

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It is highly simple as a final product: User requests a ban appeal if allowed, that form is sent to the Mod CP, Admin checks it, if they likes it (Notice how there will be no discussion [aka saving time. aka not dealing with whiny people *as bad*] they accept it. If not, they hit decline (and since I agree with people saying Mods and Admins should operate without constantly explaining themselves) the appeal is declined and now the account stays banned/suspended and they cannot submit another appeal.

An appeals process that has no ability to respond is not really an appeals process.

I think a system like this would be difficult to implement from a coding point of view - impractical almost.

If you take outright spammers out of the equation - the number of people getting banned should not be so much so as to warrant a complicated system like this.

(2016-11-15, 04:18 PM)brad-t Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-11-15, 06:07 AM)Ben Cousins Wrote: [ -> ]Some thoughts:

(2016-11-15, 02:41 AM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]Appeal-able [Default Setting] - Users are allowed to appeal the ban

*ALL* bans should be appealable. Why? Because we're human and make mistakes, have personal vandettas, etc. It's not an option, IMHO.

Speak for yourself. I don't want myself nor my team to waste time looking at ban appeals from spammers, trolls, and cheaters. There are users that make mistakes, and there are users who only want to cause trouble. Staff should be able to demarcate between the two.

Ok, that was badly worded; I concede.

The point that we're discussing this as a feature suggests the ability to enable/disable; I accept this wouldn't be useful for all sites.

I was more referring to *staff* making the mistakes. It does happen... on more sites than you think.

It is simply adding a field (if people are allowed to appeal) to fill out an Appeal "Sort of like the Quick Reply, they just get a text box) Once they submit, an Admin gets a notification.

As far as what Brad said, I actually see your point, you can't really have an "Appeal" process with out a minor discussion on what they did wrong.


The hardest part would be implementing a "Chat" for the Banned and Admin to talk through.

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I used to Moderate a forum (who uses MyBB) and they had at least 10 bans a day, plus roughly 17 people a day trying to appeal a ban but with the forum being open for ANYONE to comment, their Appeals were over ran with members who were holding grudges, bots, and random people commenting.

So saying "you'll never have enough bans to even make this worth while" is your opinion and your experience - not everyone else's.

(2016-11-15, 08:17 PM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]The hardest part would be implementing a "Chat" for the Banned and Admin to talk through.

How so? MyBB is a forum software, designed for discussions... In my eyes, a topic could be created in a forum defined by an admin as soon as a user appeals their ban. This forum would act exactly like PI does here - only users and staff would be able to see it.

Heck, you could even implement it this way with MyBB 1.8 by allowing banned members to post in the forum and create threads manually.

Agreed, but why have a banning feature if there is not a defined method to "appeal" bans.

And it creates another forum that we have to keep an eye on, and as soon as a person's ban appeal has been rejected, they are still in the "Banned" group so therefore they can still see the "Ban Appeal" forum and they can still comment or start another ban appeal. Because the only way to fix that issue is to either:

1. Make it where Banned members cannot see the forum (Defeats the purpose of a Ban Appeal forum)
2. Make it where banned members cannot comment / post in said forum (Again, defeats the purpose of a Ban Appeal)

It's useless posts that have to be manually deleted, and monitored so Spam threads don't constantly get created.

(2016-11-15, 08:17 PM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]I used to Moderate a forum (who uses MyBB) and they had at least 10 bans a day, plus roughly 17 people a day trying to appeal a ban but with the forum being open for ANYONE to comment, their Appeals were over ran with members who were holding grudges, bots, and random people commenting.

So saying "you'll never have enough bans to even make this worth while" is your opinion and your experience - not everyone else's.

I have seen this type of forum before - it's not normal - in fact i will say its directly because the quality of moderation / moderators is poor. They involve themselves in forum disputes, take sides and act without integrity. Fix that situation first and the need for a ban appeal system will be greatly reduced.

(2016-11-15, 08:27 PM)Euan T Wrote: [ -> ]

(2016-11-15, 08:17 PM)Zaqre Wrote: [ -> ]The hardest part would be implementing a "Chat" for the Banned and Admin to talk through.

How so? MyBB is a forum software, designed for discussions... In my eyes, a topic could be created in a forum defined by an admin as soon as a user appeals their ban. This forum would act exactly like PI does here - only users and staff would be able to see it.

Heck, you could even implement it this way with MyBB 1.8 by allowing banned members to post in the forum and create threads manually.

Refer my first post in this thread where I alluded to that.

Ban appeals are a waste of time. Almost every ban will be appealed and just waste admin time. If admins are concerned about mistakes with bans then just ban very carefully.

I've banned/closed more accounts that there are members on MyBB. So I think I know what wasting time is.

If you try to explain why someone is banned they only respond with a defensive argument which puts you into a position to justify your actions. You either quote policy or have to type up a new statement to them. Takes precious time away from dealing with your community. People get banned for a reason. They don't have to like or agree with the reason or even know why. Removing them from the community is the end result.

I think it's ridiculous to allow ban appeals. And if you do it, you'll find out why yourself. Even worse is any idea you put forward to encourage appealing bans.

Quote:I was more referring to *staff* making the mistakes.

If you have someone on staff making bad bans then mistake is allowing them to remain on staff. And if you have good staff and a less than 5% overzealous/unjust ban then I think that's near an acceptable margin. You're always going to have people that disagree with their ban. Bans generally are done subjectively. If you begin questioning every ban then you're not being effective with your policies and their clarity.

End result is that you should have good staff with clear policy and guidelines for bans. Then you have no real need for a ban appeal system.