Mysterious banning for spam has hit again...

[Pugsy]

I was just notified that one of our members got banned for spam and he didn't spam (never has) and I DIDN'T ban him.
Remember last summer when it was happening to a few people????

Well it's happening again and while I have banned a couple of spammers....it wasn't this member.
I checked the moderator log to see if someone else had maybe done it....I checked the past 2 weeks worth of logs and his banning isn't listed. This is like what happened to Zonker and a few others last summer.

So if you can't log in....and it says you are guilty of spamming and you know you are innocent....I didn't do it.
Anytime any moderator takes any sort of action it gets put in the log along with who, what and when.

This is above my pay grade.....going to have to notify IT department again.

[Grumpy48]

If one does get banned here, how can you get unbanned? I got mistakenly banned once a while back in a different forum and fortunately I knew one of the members outside the group that I was able to contact and have him contact the forum mod to un-ban me.I don't know anyone here that I could contact outside this group.

[Pugsy]

If one does get banned here, how can you get unbanned? I got mistakenly banned once a while back in a different forum and fortunately I knew one of the members outside the group that I was able to contact and have him contact the forum mod to un-ban me.I don't know anyone here that I could contact outside this group.

Well......maybe use a VPN to log in?????? That's what the most recent victim is doing.

As I already explained....if I didn't do the banning then I can't do any unbanning even if you did/could contact me.

Frustrating I know....believe me I understand this fact but I don't have a direct ear to the IT people....I have to ask Carolyn to contact them.

[D.H.]

I realize that if you don't ban spam, the blog will become useless. However, any method of flagging users (manual or automatic) is prone to error and needs to have a means to correct the errors.

[Pugsy]

I realize that if you don't ban spam, the blog will become useless. However, any method of flagging users (manual or automatic) is prone to error and needs to have a means to correct the errors.

WOW I didn't know that. Thanks for the reminder.

[stevenal]

I’m banned from using my laptop on WIFI, but phone still works over cellular. Please unban me.

[stevenal]

And laptop works again.

[Pugsy]

And laptop works again.

Please unban me.

And I did nothing.....to ban you or unban you.
I didn't do it.
So asking me to unban you is a waste of your time and mine.
And I am probably the only person who is watching this thread.

[RogerSC]

Couple of ways of dealing with your banned IP:

- Use a VPN so that your public IP address is the address that the VPN gives out.

- Change a couple of digits in your router's MAC Address on the right end (least significant digits) of your MAC Address. This causes your ISP to generate a new IP address for you. And doesn't affect anything else.

Both of the above worked for me. Haven't been banned since I fiddled with my router's MAC Address after I got tired of firing up the VPN to use cpaptalk. Haven't even had to do that lately, but I expect to be banned again at some point.

[jsmit86]

Still banned. VPN is the work around.

[Pugsy]

You know I got to thinking the other day about a time, many years ago, when I was using Dish Network TV IP provider and the Dish IP provider got the ban notice. I got with Carolyn about it and they (IT people) tried to figure out why because the Dish IP address wasn't anywhere on the ban list. They could never get it sorted out. I worked around it for quite some time (used my cell phone to create a hot spot and then I linked up my laptop to the cell phone hotspot and the different IP address from my phone and bypassed the ban thing. It's been a really long time ago and I just don't remember which came first....the system wide un banning of the Dish IP address or the fact that I got mad at Dish IP service and we changed to using Hughes net as my IP provider.

I am NOT holding my breath waiting for the IT people to get this mess sorted out.

[ozij]

And I am probably the only person who is watching this thread.

At 5556 views?
No way!

[Pugsy]

And I am probably the only person who is watching this thread.

At 5556 views?
No way!

I hadn't even notice view count but then I never put much faith in that number.
I still remember watching the view count increase by a thousand in just a couple of minutes and I knew that was a statistical anomaly unless someone had rigged up something to increase view count. It was just someone being an ass.

Let me put it this way.....I don't think that many people in IT are watching this thread.

When I say "crickets" that means everyone and not just administration.

[jsmit86]

Besides VPN, another way is just to use the TOR browser option on Brave or Chrome.
It's a bit slower, but it's easier than firing up my VPN each time.