DC bans: our idiosyncrasy

Ban, kick, drop. Words that instigate fear upon those poor key-less users, by granting their operators god-like powers.

If you’ve been frequenting DC hubs for some time, surely these are the definitions that you have built up for these terms:

• Ban: add the offender to a list of prohibited users that may never be allowed to log back into the hub.
• Kick: add the user to the prohibited list, but lift the stoppage after a certain amount of time.
• Drop: just disconnect the user; he may reconnect whenever he wants to.

Now as far as i can tell, this is very specific to the Direct Connect world. In other online communities where exclusions are necessary, like gaming servers or IRC, these are the definitions that i have always encountered so far:

• Ban: add the offender to a list of prohibited users that may never be allowed to come back – the ban can be temporary or permanent, but regardless, it’s still a ban.
• Kick: just disconnect the user; he may reconnect whenever he wants to.

To summarize, here is a handy chart that you might find useful if you happen to be admin in DC hubs and in other online communities at the same time:

DC network	Rest of the world
Ban	Permanent ban
Kick	Temporary ban
Drop	Kick

I hope you’re confused enough now!

poy