Banned from forums

[Nacho3]

Hey guys, just wanted to inform everybody of what happened to me and how you might be able to fix it if the same happens to you while saying  thanks to TDI and Sheep for the help. Yesterday out of nowhere I started getting a message that said "sorry nacho3 you are banned from this forum" I couldn't figure out why or how to contact anybody to fix it. So, I went through my old emails and found one from a trade with TDIrunner and asked him if he would contact an admin. He quickly got back to me and said Sheep was looking into it and suggested in the mean time I could try another browser. I always use chrome so I tried edge (for the first time actually) and something curious happened: I did not even login and it said "sorry guest you are banned from this forum" I immediately thought the issue must be with my computer and tried using my iPad. That worked just fine on chrome. I then went into my computer and deleted my cookies for the past week and it works again.

[Arseen]

This has happened to about 10-15 members during 2 months or so.
Clearing browser's cookies and cache has resolved the issue always.
No idea why this happens.

[sheep2001]

I’ve had the same over the past 24 hours.   

At first it was just edge on my desktop PC.  Then it was also chrome, and then both browsers on my iPad and iPhone.  I just cleared the cache on my iPad and I’m back on.  This is very bizarre.

[FritzWhite]

I felt very anxious and upset when I read that I was banned yesterday. Then I cleared my cache per Arseen's advice and calmed down.

[TDIRunner]

Just to throw in a slightly different version of events.  I was "banned" a few months ago.  Luckily I have a few outside contacts for a few members and they were able to take care of it on their end.  In my situation, I didn't have to clear any cache.  The admins were able to fix it.  Luckily, I haven't had any issues in the past few days that others have been experiencing. 

Any chance this has something to do with Snowcone working on the site?

[Bear78]

This is happening again as I have been banned via IP on my daily network. I'm posting this through a different network. Admins are working on it (Thanks) and I know this is in place to stop bots / spam.

Not sure if it would help but instead of doing the scrambled visual code (which doesn't work anymore) at registration, could we set it up to asks for a trivia question or something? I know another forum I used to visit did this and it seems to work pretty good.

[TDIRunner]

I've been "banned" for most of the week now.  I tried to clear cache and cookies, but it would only work for a minute before the ban came back.  I got in contact with Sheep and he was talking about a range of IP bans which he cleared and so far it seems to be working.  This is the longest I've been able to log in for a while now. 

Thanks Sheep.  I was starting to get withdrawals. 

[ShoothimNow]

Whatever you guys did, it fixed it where I work, thanks.

[DeadPark]

Same here. I was banned for the last week and clearing the cache and cookies wasn't helping. but now it's working for me as well. Thank you!

[sheep2001]

I suspect an ip ban took out an entire provider.  No idea who did the ban, but, we have had a lot more spam than usual over the last couple of weeks, so it was probably justified.

In my opinion, the spammers usually spoof ip addresses, so range bans are pretty pointless.  I usually just delete the posts, and maybe the account.  Bans for the most part seem to be a waste of time, and just create problems.

[TDIRunner]

I suspect an ip ban took out an entire provider.  No idea who did the ban, but, we have had a lot more spam than usual over the last couple of weeks, so it was probably justified.

In my opinion, the spammers usually spoof ip addresses, so range bans are pretty pointless.  I usually just delete the posts, and maybe the account.  Bans for the most part seem to be a waste of time, and just create problems.

I would assume they will just come back with a different IP anyway, so yeah, the ban probably doesn't help much anyway.   

It's sort of like the spam I sometimes get in my email.  I can block the email, but what's the point?  They will most likely generate a new email address before the next batch of spam goes out. 

[ShoothimNow]

No idea who did the ban

I blame the Finnish God

Jos se ei olisi häntä, olisin surullinen

[Arseen]

In my opinion, the spammers usually spoof ip addresses, so range bans are pretty pointless.  I usually just delete the posts, and maybe the account.  Bans for the most part seem to be a waste of time, and just create problems.

Yeah not worth IP banning.

[Tech13]

There is always banning VPN IP addresses.

[UNKNOWNGAM3r]

There is always banning VPN IP addresses.

I think that would just start this problem over again seeing as more and more people are using VPNs now to browse the internet on public WiFi and such, including myself.