Disable account - Ban account

[salvatorelab]

Hi!

Are there different action to make an account disabilitation instead of a ban?
I mean, sometimes users ask to cancel their registrations to the community because they're not interested anymore.
Do you suggest to use the ban procedure or there's some other thing to do to differentiate banning from disabling on request?

Thanks.
Salva

[VikasB]

@salvatorelab

A user can close there account as well if it is allowed from admin settings. See here https://prnt.sc/ix1vp9

Admin > Users > Profile Defaults > Enable members to close their community account

[salvatorelab]

Hi VikasB,
thank you for answering.
Unfortuately our community rules don't allow this options.
Users must ask to the moderators for disable their registration.

I'm wondering if there's any option that admins or mods can make to differentiate the ban/disable a user.
Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.
Thanks.
Salva

PS: The option you suggested is not available in my admin platform. Maybe the community I'm working in has a different configuration.

[JasonHill · Accepted solution]

I don't see the need to differentiate between a ban and disabling a user apart from the mod recording the why in admin notes. It is effectively the same thing @salvatorelab. You don't have to make the reason public - most community managers will suggest you keep such information private. 

Jason

[salvatorelab]

Thank you @JasonHill, I'll go on using ban and writing in the notes the reason of the action. 

[DanK]

From my perspective disabling of account is unnecessary as doing so does not remove their contributions so we just straight up tell users its not possible. We do help them disable email notifications and private messaging to prevent them from getting community spam.

This way the account is open for them to use again in future, if they change their mind.

[SeaWolf]

We do the same, @DanK.  Users who are very insistent, we agree to ban but we stress this does not remove contributions, nor will we do so as once posted, that content belongs to us.

[Kim_E]

After I ban a user, I click the option to mark all their posts as spam so they are removed from the community.  

[KathyH]

@Kim_E  A little off this topic, but I wanted to mention, when you mark a user's posts as spam, you're teaching Spam Quarantine that those types of posts are spam, not normal posts.  Since it learns as it goes, the more normal posts that are marked as spam, the more of a chance you'll start seeing other user's normal posts caught up in quarantine.

A better option after banning a user might be to just remove all their posts (using batch processing if available), or allowing their posts to remain in the community to keep from disrupting the flow of conversation.

[PhilD]

I agree with KathyH on not using the "Mark All Content As Spam" option to remove legitimate content. Her explanation about how the spam mitigation tool learns and the ramifications is spot-on.

On the communities I have experience with, the rule has always been to leave the content in place to avoid disrupting the continuity of any given discussion.