Banned Users?

I have no idea if the question I am about to ask is taboo, or if this post is in the right place.

What is the title under people's user name <banned user>?

Does this mean that a user has been banned from the forum or is someone just writing this as a custom title.

If this name means that a person can actually be banned from SRP, can some one please refer me to the list of reasons in which a user can become banned from the forum. This is more of a matter of curiosity than anything else...

thank you

People have been banned from SRP. I am not sure about the criteria for banning and who decide(s).

If someone has < banned > in his title, it means he is banned from this site. If you look at the site rules (those which you agreed with when you signed up, but probably didn't read) you'll see that you can be banned fro everything and anything.

However, in practise, banning someone rarely happens.
Usually if someone gets banned, it's only for a couple of days, and it is more of a 'cooling off' period.

Bans up to a couple of months also happen occasionally, but this is after repeatedly causing problems, or doing something really naughty like using multiplt user accounts, or linking to bestiality porn to give you 2 real-life examples.

Then there are permanent bans. These don't happen often. 99.9% of these are banned spammers. I always try to prevent banning 'real' members because I like to believe that people can get along if they would just try. However, somtimes that does not work, and in those case a member is banned. Examples include members mailing insults to mods (you are a dickhead), sellers refusing to communicate with buyers after receiving the money, and things like that.

Note that we cannot usually divulge information about -why- we banned someone, and this makes us an easy target for public disapproval. We are not part of a judicial system. For example (purely hypothetical of course): If we would ban someone because he was ripping off members, we cannot say so.

If we did, SRP (in the person of Lynn) could be sued for defamation of character, or however the legal definition. We cannot legally say that someone is guilty of something. And if we don't have iron clad proof that will hold up in court, we will be in deep trouble.

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

I see what you mean about not being able to divulge any info about reasons for persons being banned. Need to keep the number of lawsuits down!

Keeping the integrity of SRP is paramount to keeping members like myself involved.

I thank all the Moderators in maintaining SRP to the standard it is.

Pabster

+1 on what Pabster said, and a thanks to Bruno for the clear explanation.

I couldn't agree more.

So far, I've only seen one member go from posting regularly to being banned, and I wasn't sad to see them go. As far as I can tell, the mods are very reserved about banning, but use it when they have no other choice to keep this the sort of place we would want to come to.