Time limit on IP bans?

[MustacheAndaHalf]

In another thread I see several people who hit banned IP addresses, which motivated me to read a bit more about it.  Wikipedia has to deal with an enormous volume of spammers, and their approach doesn't involve permanent IP bans:

"Most IP addresses should not be blocked more than a few hours, since the malicious user will probably move on by the time the block expires ...
However, IP addresses should almost never be indefinitely blocked. Many IP addresses are dynamically assigned and change frequently from one person to the next, and even static IP addresses are periodically reassigned or have different users."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Blocking_IP_addresses#Block_lengths


I wonder if it's worth experimenting with here, on the MMM forums.  For example, take a decent sample of IP addresses banned a long time ago, and note them in a file.  Then remove all of them from the blocked list.

If it goes smoothly, maybe the experiment can be expanded.  If a surprising amount of abuse arrives from the newly unblocked IP addresses, those IPs are still saved in a file.  TheIP addresses in that file can be re-blocked if the experiment was a bad idea.

[arebelspy]

That's a good idea. But a lot of bans would have to be gone through manually.

It's less time/effort to unblock an IP address when someone requests (e.g. their work is blocked, and they go on from home and ask). That's just so much more rare, that doing them on a one-off is not a problem.

Also the problem is almost always solved just from the person clearing their cache. 

[American GenX]

If an IP address is blocked, clearing a browser's cache will not change your public IP address.  There are other methods, such as using an external proxy or VPN service, which will show the client source IP as that of the proxy/VPN srevice, or if you can get a different IP address from your ISP.  But in general, permanent IP blocking is not a good idea.

[MustacheAndaHalf]

Sounds like the existing ban list would be a chore to tackle, compared with helping individual users who hit the problematic IP addresses.  An alternative might be that new IP bans last X weeks.  The ban still has an impact, but eventually goes away on it's own.

American GenX -  You're right that clearing the browser cache doesn't not help someone stuck on the same IP address.  But browsers remember the IP ban, so clearing the cache lets the user try again on a new IP address (or the old one, where it's not useful).

[BudgetSlasher]

Sounds like the existing ban list would be a chore to tackle, compared with helping individual users who hit the problematic IP addresses.  An alternative might be that new IP bans last X weeks.  The ban still has an impact, but eventually goes away on it's own.

American GenX -  You're right that clearing the browser cache doesn't not help someone stuck on the same IP address.  But browsers remember the IP ban, so clearing the cache lets the user try again on a new IP address (or the old one, where it's not useful).

Yup. I had this happen here. I logged on while in an airport (seems like another lifetime ago) and was told I was banned for something like racism/hate speech. I thought nothing of it until I was still "banned" on my home IP unless I logged in with a different browser or in private mode.