UBB.Developers Forums UBB.threads 7 Development How Do I? Any ideas to help me keep out problem person?

Hi everybody,

I've got a person who just won't give up. He's the only person I've ever had to ban, and actually he's the reason I started requiring registration, etc, about a year ago. Until then, the board has run fine, even with the usual arguments and occasional flames. But this guy apparently has nothing better to do than think of new ways to get in.

When he uses his regular IP, fine, I can spot it a mile away because luckily, he's the only person using that particular ISP. Then he signed up a series of new names using an ISP in another state, and those got through because it was a new trick. (I was only watching the registration log for his IP, and didn't notice the pattern until it was too late). I don't know if he got a friend up north to do it, or was on vacation and went to a cyber cafe. Anyway, I quickly blocked those new logins.

Then started the AOL, which was expected. At first I thought he'd gotten himself a trial account, but now I think he's got a friend helping him. For the last several months, he would register using an AOL account, and then quickly change over to his ISP to start posting. I was able to spot that quickly and shut him down.

However, now, he must have figured out that he shouldn't use his ISP to post, and he's just using AOL. I have no clue whether he's gone and gotten himself an account, is visiting a friend with AOL, or is having the friend do the posting for him. But he's back once again, and still playing these games.

Since it's AOL, it's obviously problematic because the IP addresses change all the time.

My problem is that I can't just ban all people who show up from AOL. And since AOL allows seven screen names, it's easy to delete on and make a new one, so it's an ongoing thing.

I've read through other posts here, and didn't find any solutions. I'm wondering if anyone might have any ideas. This poster knows he is banned forever, and it's become a real obsession for him. In the meantime, it wastes a lot of my time, and I wish I didn't have to spend so much time monitoring recent visitors and all of that.

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions that I could try? I'm frustrated by all of this, and tired of constantly having to be on guard.

Thanks in advance,

Ang

Unfortunately, the solution probably really is to just ban AOL outright... don't let any new registrations in via AOL for a good month, maybe two. Eventually, he'll either move on to other tricks, or realize that he'll never get in.

It's not too hard to evade ban's, I mean look at the ways:

Proxys
WinGates
Differant ISP's

etc etc etc... Sad thing is, people are stupid, and most are crafty...

Instead of banning AOL outright, why not simply activate registration approval for a while. That would give you some time to investigate new accounts before they can post.
Assuming you still allow anonymous viewing of the board, your new users can still get in and take a look. They just can't participate until you grant them.

Hey, wanted to post a followup in case somebody out there reads this thread and has the same problem.

The good news is that this person tends to set his settings the same way, and that's always a red flag. Since I get so many people from AOL, I don't want to just start banning AOLers and I'm sure this guy realizes that. So he's either getting himself throwaway accounts or he's got some friends on AOL who are setting up accounts for him. He's tried a number of tricks (including using an internet cafe, etc....he obviously has no life).

Anyhoo, I found a great mod last night, and installed it today. I've tested it out and it works great! It checks for double logins using a cookie (though I realize this can be defeated by using a diff. computer or deleting the cookie), but it's at least another tool to help out.

Here's the link to the mod and thread about it, written by wwb95:

https://ubbdev.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=000835

Fantastic mod!

In the beginning, I didn't even require registration and didn't have any problems. Until this guy. He has caused me to require registration, verify email addresses, etc. etc. etc. If I had his address, I'd send him some yarn and a crochet hook and say try a new hobby.

Maybe one day he'll grow bored.

Ang

Hi ang,

I had the same problem ..

the only solution as I see it is to treat him the same way he treats you!

track him .. at least he should have a website