Ban

A **ban**, also known as a **block**, is when the Splash Team decides to disallow a user or IP address from accessing the Splash Website and the Splash editor. Bans are issued when users behave inappropriately, perform disrespectful actions towards others, start and engage in Flame Wars, troll and/or cyberbully others on the website, post links to commercial websites, or continuously do anything else that is generally considered as being against the Community Guidelines.

## Bain on the Main Splash Website

On the website, when a user is banned, the ban applies to the entire site. This means that the banned user is forbidden from accessing any part of the site when logged in, including the forums (besides the Community Guidelines, the Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy and the Statistics page). In some cases (such as users creating multiple accounts to get around bans), the Splash Team may decide to ban them based on their IP address. This means that an entire network is forbidden from accessing the website (as well as the forums) and cannot be used to create accounts. Users normally receive alerts before getting banned, but they may not receive any alerts prior to being banned in the case of severe violation of the Community Guidelines.

### Account Creation Blocks

Sometimes, an IP address may be blocked from creating new accounts. In this instance, they will see a message when they click the Join Splash button on the navigation bar. The message says:

> It looks like one or more accounts on your network have been used to create disrespectful or inappropriate stuff that breaks the Splash Community Guidelines. Please let the person in charge of the computers know about this. Meanwhile, we cannot accept new account registrations from your network.
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### Account Creation Warnings

A Splasher may get warned by the Splash Team when they violate the community guidelines on multiple accounts. This normally occurs prior to an IP ban or account creation ban. The message that Splashers may get when they get warned says:

> It looks like one or more accounts on your network have been used to create disrespectful or inappropriate stuff that breaks the Splash Community Guidelines. You can still register for a new account - but please let the person in charge of the computers know about this warning. If your network is used to break the community guidelines again, it may be blocked.
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This is to remind the user to follow the guidelines when creating another account, cautioning about IP bans.

## Bans in Splash 1.x

Before Splash 2.0, bans on the main Splash website and the Splash Forums were handled separately instead of the whole site, so users were often only banned from the part of the website that they had broken the rules on.

### Splash Website

Bans on the Splash Website usually occurred when one shared inappropriate projects, harassed others, cheated to get onto the Front Page, or was predominantly disrespectful. A ban in Splash 1.x was far more likely in the case of repeated offenses. Bans could only be made on the main website by the Splash Team. User bans on the main website also applied on the forums. However, IP bans did not always apply on the forums.

### Splash Forums

Most bans here occurred when a user either often sparked flame wars or posted links to commercial websites. Bans here were rarer than on the main Splash website, as far fewer users used the forums than the main website. Both the Splash Team and Community Moderators could ban users on the forums.

## Becoming Unbanned

### Splash Website

In most cases, bans are temporary and the account is automatically unbanned after a set number of days, usually three, but if the ban is permanent (known as a "permaban", or "permban"), that user has to contact the appropriate administration (the Splash Team on the main website) in order to become unbanned

## Range

Bans are either user-restricted or IP ranged: usually only a user is banned, but if they create more accounts and evade their ban, they can be IP banned.

### Account Bans

Account bans are simply bans that prevent a certain account from access. Account bans are more common than IP bans and are generally used if there is nothing to suggest the user will create other accounts to continue causing havoc.

### IP Bans

IP bans are normally used when a user creates alternate accounts in order to evade an account ban. The IP ban disallows access on the network that has the banned IP, thus preventing the Splasher from using another account to continue their rule-breaking activity. If an innocent user shares a network with someone who caused an IP ban, they may unexpectedly be restricted from using the Splash website, although their Splash account would not necessarily be blocked in this case.

## Muting

A user may be blocked from posting comments and forum posts if their comments are detected to be breaking the Community Guidelines. Unlike bans, mutes are temporary and automatic, only blocking users from posting comments and forum posts rather than access to the entire site.

## Images

Splash’s IP Ban MessageSplash Website Account Ban Message