Board Thread:Administration/@comment-24376429-20140226045956

One of our practices around here is to block spammers and vandals for an indefinite period of time and just forget about it and let them just pile up in the block log. This is a very bad practice and here is why.

Our networks, the little pipelines that bring web pages to you and content out are assigned an address much like your house and, unlike your Social Security Number, it isn't unique to you. Every time you move, switch ISPs, or even when your ISP decides to shift things about your IP address changes. This means that an indefinite block placed on a users IP address (autoblock) will effect more than intended. Just like the IP address the block gets passed from person to person and household to household.

Yeah this may not seem like a huge deal with such a small amount of blocks and it isn't, that's only if you don't count the number of indefinite site blocks we have (somewhere between 800 - 1,000). This means that we have a huge number of innocent people barred from using our site until their IP magically switches and they get a new one. Everything is alright then yes? Nope, the account they made on this site with their last IP address has also been blocked with the same settings as the original meaning if they try to log on again that's another indefinite block on an IP address that wasn't intended.

There is a solution to this however. It is to NOT block indefinitely but to instead set the max duration to 6 months. It is safe to assume that in six months the IP address has been switched over to another person and yes they are still effected but the best part is that the block will expire after a set amount of time and so will all of the accidental blocks caused by it. Thus drastically lowering the possibility of accidental permablocks.

This proposal is in favour of lowering the max duration down to 6 months.

 