is it possible for a forum manager
to BLOCK a particular person from reading/viewing a privately owned, yet public forum ???

riddle me this

Pep <~~~ looking at public forums without permission all 'da time!

At the risk of identifying myself as a computer nerd...

A forum manager may prevent anonymous browsing of the forum, such as they do with the Marriage Builder Weekend participants' boards. This will prevent unknown persons from trolling the boards.

They can also restrict boards to certain accounts, remove accounts, and restrict accounts to certain boards.

The level to which this is done on any particular board indicates how much time is spent managing the board. The more limiting you do, the more time it takes, and the more it costs. Most just set them up and let them go.

Hope this helps.

They can also BAN a person's ISP so they cannot view the board.

Yup Ahnold has it right. An administrator can do whatever they wish if they are willing to maintain it. Theoretically they could limit to just themselves and talk and discuss only with themselves.

P.S.

Put your clothes on, your monitor is working as a camera and this excessive use of bandwidth is causing a slow down on the internet. Plus Bad mental images from Mel's description.

My understanding is this: The private boards, yes, of course, but the public boards, no.

I've moderated on a couple of boards and the best that could be done is an IP restriction - which brings about other problems. If an IP addy is restricted from posting, it could sweep in many, many people. AOL, for example, uses several IP addresses for a group within a certain area... so to restrict one user might restrict hundreds, or that user could just keep trying until one of the "unrestricted" IPs let them in.

I could be wrong on the numbers affected, but feel fairly confident about what I'm saying.

Or I could be blowing smoke out my hiney. That happens sometimes.

*puff*

Excuse me.

I can't read Eagle 15 ... long ago put on my *ignore* list <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

so ... if someone was using a multiple-use puter, say a work or library puter ... how does banning/blocking an individual work in that case?

Pep <~~~ posting from nekkid notbanned camp

Pep,

I coudl tell you how.

But then I'd have to kill you.


PS: I am NOT a nerd. I just look and sound like one.

Shouldn't unless you have an account and ae trying to log in. Otherwise I would say the board you are trying is down or the machines (s) you are using have issues.

OOPS you can't read this.

Well, if the site allows anonymous browsing as this one does, anybody in the world can see it. The computer's location doesn't matter if they have not blocked the IP.

The information on IP ranges is correct, they generally won't do that because you block whole segments. Individuals rarely have static IP addresses, so that is not usually the route taken.

The only way to ensure keeping someone out really is to positively identify them when they create the account, then review and approve account requests. Most sites do this by sending a verification email with a link that then ensures they at least have a valid email address for you. Not useful for verifying identity, though.

Some use a credit card which they verify. This is better, but you could get someone else's card, so how can you be sure?

Biometrics is as close to a sure thing as anything for positive ID, but as you see in the movies, it's not foolproof.

I guess you could make someone show up with a gov. issued ID, then give them account info, but they could be a friend of the person you want to keep out...you get the idea.

Another way to limit access is within a network...don't put it on the Internet, but keep it internal on your own network. Everyone is blocked except for people you know and really good hackers <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

***** you are ignoring this user *****

I retract the smoke I thought I might have blown out my own hiney... I was RIGHT! Yay!!

(But now I have cramps)

thank you governor

this is what I thought

Pep

You have him on IGNORE under your Pepperband log in. You could log out on that same computer and be able to read the board and his posts would not be ignored.

If you are signed on any computer with your Pepperband login, the poster will be on ignore.

I think Ba passed the crack pipe to me