I've been 'locked' logged in by a website

If the title of this thread makes no sense to you, don;t panic, i'm not sure it makes sense to me but I'm not how else to describe this.

I signed up for a forum based in the uk just before Christmas last year, it's nothing special, just a general forum based around television and media.

Last night I was completely randomly and out of the blue banned. I wasn't particularly bothered, I was just going to log out of the website, delete all my cookies from it and not bother going back.

However, this was the message I have when I go onto the forum.

You have been banned for the following reason:
Please refer to the message sent to your registered email address.

Date the ban will be lifted: 27-04-2013, 22:00

That's it, no other options on any pages from the website, just that on every page. I have no option to log out or delete the account or whatever.

You've think was the result of an extreme violation of their terms and conditions, however the reason for the ban is this.

Please note that we have found your recent posts to be unconstructive.

Comments which are likely to disrupt the natural flow of a thread by being overly provocative or inflammatory are not permitted and as such have been removed.

Your posting privileges have been revoked for 2 weeks. Any subsequent violations of our Terms and Conditions, including re-registration attempts during this temporary ban, will result in your posting privileges being permanently terminated.

Unconstructive posting, not exactly a major online crime.

I'm now slightly concerned as to why they won't let me log out and remove my information from their site. Why do they want to hold it on there? I can;t even access the terms and conditions on the site any more.

I even reset my web browser (safari) completely, which is rather annoying to do, and although it seemed to have removed me I found I was logged back in and back to that page bout a minute later.

Surely a law must be being broken here, those newish EU cookie laws were brought in to stop things like this weren't they?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Just delete all your cookie data for the site from your browser and that should stop it

I've tried that, but it still logs me back in again straight after.

check your browser's password section and remove the password from there?

reply to post by Maxatoria


i've done that as well.

i've just had to log back into everything manually.

reply to post by bates
Try finding an add on for your browser that allows you to delete long term "sugar" cookies. These cookies are not automatically removed along with regular cookies. I use the Better Privacy add on for Firefox, but I'm sure there are probably similar add ons for other browsers. That should solve your problem.

You have been IP banned. The only thing you can do is to try a different computer or an anonymizor program

reply to post by Mamatus


it's not an ip ban, i can get onto the website using a different machine and also using a different browser.

it's also left me logged on, on that screen, on my phone.

reply to post by littled16


cheers, I'll look into that.

reply to post by bates


They banned the IP of your machine. Not your floating IP from the ISP. pardon me I have to go pee now.

reply to post by Mamatus


i'm on the website on this machine just using a different browser (firefox).

my phone uses a different ip address completely and that's banned and locked to that page as well.

they've got something dodgy running to stop you being able to log out.

you can remove those 'super cookies' manually...
they are stored in your adobe flash player software that you can access thru 'control panel'.
before you 'delete all' info. you could check out 'local storage settings by site' to see what is being stored there.

reply to post by tinhattribunal


if i get logged back in now i'm going to be a bit scared.

thank-you for the help everybody, it was much appreciated

What do you want to do?

It's got nothing to do with cookies. Are you trying to log back into a website you've been banned from for 2 weeks? You can't.

You want to delete your posts, that you think got you banned? I would bet they are already deleted. Hence the ban.

I don't get it. Or do you want to simply delete your account?

Most likely you can't. Most forums don't have that option. Simply because it screws up the posts/thread database.

So.. not sure what you're asking?

I'd be furious at a site like that anyway, and better off leaving it in it's own little world. Rather than want to get back in and tell them what's what!

Originally posted by Mamatus
You have been IP banned. The only thing you can do is to try a different computer or an anonymizor program

And do what? Log back in with his ID and associate a new IP with a banned account, and hjave his account permabanned.

Good advice.

He's banned. No way around it. No deleting your account. No removing posts...

Oo

reply to post by winofiend


i just wanted to log out of the website.

i have no interest in deleting anything i've posted, i said nothing that was offensive or anything.

it was just concerning me a bit that they'd left me logged in on that page with no option of logging out.

i'm finished with the website now, i've reported it to ICO with a brief explanation of my concerns so if they've done something wrong they'll be pulled up on it.

I'm not sure what has you bugged about being logged in

Is there a reason you NEED to log out?

Why does it matter so much?

Unless this site is critically important to you, OP? I wouldn't worry and just leave it. They banned you in a way that is, simply put, lazy and sloppy. The software which runs a different site I'm a mod at generates the same message (almost word for word...I wonder if it's the same software?) and there are different ways of banning a problem user I have to choose from there. It takes a few extra seconds to be selective and do it properly ....or I can just IP block ban to be the most extreme in just outright unprofessional shortcutting.

Given the lack of information they gave you ...and real poor way they seem to run their site for handling these things? Is it really a site you wanted to be a member of now, anyway? I'd ask myself that at this point....and why I think Mods/Admins worth the name don't do things that lazy, sloppy way.

(another site which shall not be named literally does ban by entire C and B block of the IP! lol... I've checked occasionally for something to find the whole ISP I'm in and hence, over half my city is block/banned. Some people.. )