Banned Users

[testz]

If a user is deleted all his data is also removed from the forum DB. So the spammer can then sign up again and do everything all over again. Banning is almost always more effective than deleting against spammers.

Nothing prevents spammer from registering again under another name.
What prevents automatic spammers is reliable captcha.

If permanently banned users are an issue of any kind (DB, forum stats) they should be deleted (or excluded from statistics at least).

They should be deleted but after some time - let's say we can delete all banned users once a week or month.

[emski]

If a user is deleted all his data is also removed from the forum DB. So the spammer can then sign up again and do everything all over again. Banning is almost always more effective than deleting against spammers.

Nothing prevents spammer from registering again under another name.
What prevents automatic spammers is reliable captcha.

If permanently banned users are an issue of any kind (DB, forum stats) they should be deleted (or excluded from statistics at least).

[bitsapphire]

If a user is deleted all his data is also removed from the forum DB. So the spammer can then sign up again and do everything all over again. Banning is almost always more effective than deleting against spammers.

[cass]

I would advise if you'll bann as mod a user completely eliminated, pls delete his account instead of just banning!
Then we won't bloat our forum DB with dead profiles ... and we'll get better stats also!

correct me if I am wrong…