The term 'ban' in IP.Board has a relatively loose definition and can often mean many different things. IP.Board supports an array of useful features to control access to the board, or in this case to restrict access to the board. Some examples of what 'ban' may refer to are
- IP address ban filters
- Email address ban filters
- Username ban filters
- Placing a user in the 'Banned' group
- Suspending the user so that they cannot access the board temporarily
Many users have asked us to make it easier to ban users - frequently an administrator finds that they want to do more than just one of the above actions, and usually against a specific user account who has been causing problems.
IP.Board 3 will help administrators control who can (and cannot) access their board. While all of the above features are still in place and can be accessed individually just as in IP.Board 2.x, there is now a centralized "Ban User" panel that an administrator can use when they are taking action against a specific user account.
When viewing the user account, there is a button you can click labeled "Ban User" (if the user is already banned, the button will read "Unban User"). Upon clicking this button, an AJAX popup window will present you with many options.
Firstly, IP.Board now supports a true "banned member" status, separate from their actual user group. This means you can ban a member without moving them into another group (for instance, if you do not want to upset the user's friends on your board).
The ban management panel will also allow you to move the user to another group (e.g. the "Banned" group included by default with the IP.Board installation routine). You can also ban the user's email address and username right from the popup window.
Additionally, every IP address that IP.Board can find that the user has used will be listed, and you will be able to ban each IP address just by checking the box next to each one.
Lastly, there is a textarea box provided on the popup that will allow you to enter in a note (which saves to the typical user notes area) for future reference.
As a convenience, links to suspend the member temporarily, remove the user's posting rights, and require moderator preview of the user's posts appear in the window, in case you determine you would rather take one of those actions instead.
The unban panel provides exactly the same options, but in reverse, allowing you to move the user back to their normal member group, remove their email address, usernames and IP address from the ban filters, and to remove the banned flag on their account, reversing the changes you just made.
Account management is important to administrators, and IP.Board 3 is taking steps to make such management that much simpler.