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- CHALLENGER1ON1
Sorry if this question might have a sensitive answer, I was just curious as to how the banning system works.
How do you guys tell if a banned user is using a duplicate account?
- Thread starter masterrawad
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- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
It gets asked every now and then.
Generally speaking, a member's MO or writing style stands out long before any special tools we might have - it's actually surprising just how unique your own posts are to you. Members also have their own special interests, so someone previously banned while being a pain in, say, the GT5 Photomode forum will often return with their new account to do the same thing in the same place.
Sometimes we can't tell though. This is a good thing - if a member who has been banned changes his ways enough that we don't even notice them, the problem we had has been solved.
Generally speaking, a member's MO or writing style stands out long before any special tools we might have - it's actually surprising just how unique your own posts are to you. Members also have their own special interests, so someone previously banned while being a pain in, say, the GT5 Photomode forum will often return with their new account to do the same thing in the same place.
Sometimes we can't tell though. This is a good thing - if a member who has been banned changes his ways enough that we don't even notice them, the problem we had has been solved.
- 4,209
- Wasilla, AK
This. I've spent some time around "hobbyist" trolls and flame warriors, and the consensus is, it actually takes a heck of a lot of effort to camoflage your grammar, phraseology, any particular misspellings or other habits, and all the other elements or your posting style, not to mention any strongly held opinions (which, depending on the forum, may have been what got you banned in the first place).
- 27,387
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- NewAesthetic
- SlipZtrEm
Generally, it's a case-by-case basis. There have been a few instances of returning banned members coming back with a very different attitude, and like Famine said, at that point, the original problem is no longer, er, a problem. Those that go down in a massive, obscenity-laced, smoldering pile of a banishment, rejoin immediately and continue the exact posting style that earned them the boot in the first place are likely never to stay.
Oh, there's also the times when folks make a new account after receiving a temporary ban, to circumvent it. Considering a comment about avoiding doing precisely that is almost always attached to the message announcing the temporary ban, that sort of ignoring tends not to work in a member's favour.
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- GTP_Famine
IP addresses vary from no help through circumstantial right up to slap a sticker on it, it's done.
Generally, they're just part of an overall picture.
Generally, they're just part of an overall picture.
Hah, no, there's not enough space in my head. However every Infraction is logged on the site, along with every post associated to each Infraction. By the time we've dealt with someone enough times that they get banned, we've usually got a reasonable chunk of things they've said to refer to when there's someone new jogging our memory.
- 2,027
- Azle, Texas, USA
- GTP_KinLM
- KinLM
I was actually wondering this exact same thing!
Thanks to whoever it is that asked (I didn't have the courage) and thanks to all the mods for the explanations.
I think that what was stated above is very fair as far as allowing a member to return if they've changed so much that they've basically camouflaged their posting style.
Thanks to whoever it is that asked (I didn't have the courage) and thanks to all the mods for the explanations.
I think that what was stated above is very fair as far as allowing a member to return if they've changed so much that they've basically camouflaged their posting style.
- 11,647
- Intercourse, PA
- Carbonox
Scared of asking questions from the big bad mods?
To be fair, so am I sometimes. 
I'm actually a bit surprised that the system is that lenient. In the forums I've browsed in the past, they absolutely had zero tolerance for duplicate accounts, no matter how willing the member was to improve their behavior.
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- xXKingJoshXx
How do you stop someone from constantly making new accounts after being banned?
ITCC_Andrew
(Banned)
- 18,532
- Kitchener
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- GTP_Famine
Surprisingly, this thread isn't about you and, had you read some of it, you'd notice your subsequent comment to be incorrect:Do I count?
The only IP ban that will completely prevent a returning user registering is *.*.*.* and that's not terribly useful because it bans everyone.
It's not possible to prevent an individual re-registering. It's only possible to make it less easy for them to do so - though we have a range of less easy from "slightly less convenient" to "quite difficult".
How? That's a trade secret.
- 5,551
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- GTP_RogerTheHors
That's the staff's suggestion from the very first time you receive a dreaded PM form one of us, not after you've been banned.
What if the first time someone receives a PM from a mod it it titled "Well done on topping the WRS rankings" or something like that? Is that to be dreaded as well?
Anyway, I think it's interesting hearing about how IP addresses are considered one of the less important factors in comparison to tone, interests, and writing style. I guess it makes sense when you think about it though.
In response to whoever said about all the other websites they've been on having an outright ban on alternate accounts, I have to say that's not the case for me. I know of one website where there is a limit of 9 alternate accounts.
- 4,209
- Wasilla, AK
That's nothing compared to GameFAQs. You get (usually) unlimited alts, and ban-dodging is completely OK, at least to a point. To reach the point of not being allowed to come back (or just not being able to tell people who you were, for lightish cases), you have to hack and scam people out of their accounts, and most "Kill on Sight" (actual term) users have broken most of the site's rules many, many times as well.
Needless to say, their board culture is much different than most of the internet, for that as well as many other reasons. Many of the boards have their own subculture as well, plus you have the secret board hunters. Plus they have many, many memes all their own, many of which have never gone beyond GameFAQs.
I think the record for accounts there is 530+ at once and 560+ total, both by the same guy.
Needless to say, their board culture is much different than most of the internet, for that as well as many other reasons. Many of the boards have their own subculture as well, plus you have the secret board hunters. Plus they have many, many memes all their own, many of which have never gone beyond GameFAQs.
I think the record for accounts there is 530+ at once and 560+ total, both by the same guy.
- 2,170
- Sydney
- Inferno_251
What about here? Judging from the Banned User Log there must be some with over a dozen accounts by comparison
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- Coxis
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- GTP_sneakyboy62
Considering in the shoes of administrators who habitually monitor activities of the users on the go the IP address would be one of the distinctive factors for detecting them, whilst for most of those who solely pay visits as unforeseen guests would do that by finding out the way of behavior, writing styles and inclination toward stuff.
I doubt the administrative staffs would ban the IP address of those users who for once got exiled from the community at their very first scope - keeping an eye out for them for the time being to judge their willingness to alter their attitude that was once problematic. In the instance of those users being too adamant in changing the behavior or the breaching acts of the regulations being too intolerable then the staffs would take plausible actions.
I doubt the administrative staffs would ban the IP address of those users who for once got exiled from the community at their very first scope - keeping an eye out for them for the time being to judge their willingness to alter their attitude that was once problematic. In the instance of those users being too adamant in changing the behavior or the breaching acts of the regulations being too intolerable then the staffs would take plausible actions.
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- 4,209
- Wasilla, AK
I've looked it up. That guy's tally was 536 simultaneous accounts (because you can do that on GameFAQs) before his first banning, in which he attempted to break the site rules with all 536 accounts on a heavily-used subforum (he only got to account #31 before the admin logged on though). He has had a total of 602 banned accounts, plus one more he still uses (because GameFAQs - he'll be banned again if he says who he was, but it's pretty much an open secret at this point), thus bringing the total to 603 lifetime accounts.
- 2,170
- Sydney
- Inferno_251
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