[Philiwily]

Over the past month or so, there have been a good deal of members who have been constantly de-railing topics. Warning them or giving them temporary bans does little, but I also don't want to perma-ban them, because a lot of them have the potential to contribute a lot. My "Open Carnage" forum, that is, off topic, has been a bit too active with topics that have posts with only several words in them. What do you suggest I do to get some of these problem members back on track and posting constructively?

[Frank]

Maybe restrict them to only certain forums.

[Moelman]

That might be a good idea, if warnings aren't doing anything than don't let them post in the forums they're wreaking havoc in and see if they cool it down. Sometimes you just have to let a member go though if they cause you too much trouble, if they do then definitely ban them because they won't be worth your time.

[MissMoke]

I agree with Moelman. Even if I only have 20 members I don't have time for members who blatantly disregard the rules and have already been temp banned more than once for an offense. I've had members produce THOUSANDS of posts but in the end they brought little value because within those posts were arguments and insults and general passive aggressive behaviors.

If I'm You and this is my forum the next ban is the last one, and make that CRYSTAL CLEAR to them.

[Frank]

Last year, in September, I had a big crowd come to my main forum site. I was getting up to 1000 posts a day average. I wound up deleting 50-100 people within a month's time. They thought they could have their way and didn't want to follow the rules or the standards. They lacked respect, big time. I lost half my activity, and knew I would. More than half actually. Sticking with quality and going that route was the right thing for me. If I had to go back to that crossroad not only would I do it again, I would do it faster, sparing myself and the good members the torture. If you saw my stats you would see a sudden increase, then sudden decrease reflecting this story. I got the benefit of keeping the good ones and showing the previous members that I am not in it for warm bodies or post count. It increased loyalty and appreciation while showing them they can count on my to stick to my principles and that I am sincere about my long-term nature and focus. So my recommendation tends to be play hardball. I made my previous comment because you said that you did not want to get rid of them. I wanted to express that I doubt you will get them inline. I agree with MissMoke - final warning time.

[Naijaboy]

i guess it all gets down to people reading forum titles and replying with some sense

[Psyched]

I have a three strikes and your out rule .. doesn't matter to me how "popular" the member is.

One of my early problems with running forums was "seeing the potential" in folks (now mind you, I am a mental health professional and a teacher .. so I tend to see potential often .. lol). I made the mistake long ago of not banning folks who needed it because I thought that with a little care on my part, they could become productive forum members .... boy am I ever glad I let go of that .. lol ... it just took way too much of my energy and did absolutely nothing in the end.

Anyway ..... when my members come back from a ban, they are put in a "probation" user group which restricts their access to those boards which tend to generate the most difficulty moderating. They have to show me about a month of active and responsible posting before they are returned to the main user group with full privileges. This seems to have cut down on the number of nuisance posters (those who try to always skirt the rules just for the sake of making a fuss). It also shows me real quickly who needs to just bypass the three strike rule and go straight to a perm ban. Has really eliminated headaches.

There is no case, as far as I am concerned, where a member who is consistently a pain in the back side is gonna straighten up their act ... and I don't care if that member is the most popular member on the forum, has been there the longest, or has several friends on the forum, they are not worth my time or the health of my forum and they need to find some place else to play.

[Moelman]

Excellent post Psyched. We do a similar system at one of mine (3 strikes), except we are a bit lax on the rule for long time members. It's a large forum but activity has still gone down over the past two years. So we are pretty reluctant to permanently ban a member who has thousands of posts and contributed for years, even if they do cause trouble.

[MHAndy]

Very good post, thanks I will put what you guy's said and put it into effect.

[Rizzo]

I use the same idea, 3 strikes and you're out. It's sad, but worth doing to keep the rest of the site happy.