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Kicks and Bans

Status: Complete

Kicks and bans are the most severe community-level moderation actions. Use them when warnings and timeouts have not resolved the issue, or when the behavior is severe enough to warrant immediate removal.

Kicking a User

Permission Required: Community Moderator or higher

Kicking removes a user from the community entirely. The kicked user loses access to all channels, groups, and group channels within the community.

What Happens When a User Is Kicked

  • The user is removed from the community membership.
  • The user is removed from all groups within the community.
  • The user is removed from all channels within those groups.
  • The action is recorded in the audit log (action: community_kick).
  • The kicked user can rejoin if they receive a new invite link.

How to Kick a User

From the community settings page:

  1. Open the community settings and navigate to the Members tab.
  2. Find the user you want to kick.
  3. Click the Kick button next to their name.
  4. Confirm the action in the dialog.

From the API:

DELETE /api/communities/{communityId}/members/{userId}

Kick Restrictions

  • You cannot kick yourself. Use Leave Community instead.
  • You cannot kick the Owner. The Owner must transfer ownership or delete the community.
  • Moderators can only kick users with the Member role.
  • Admins can kick Members and Moderators, but not other Admins or the Owner.

Banning a User

Permission Required: Community Moderator or higher

Banning is a permanent removal. A banned user is removed from the community and cannot rejoin via invite links until unbanned.

Warning: Banning is a serious action that permanently prevents the user from participating in your community. Make sure you have considered warnings, timeouts, and kicks first -- unless the violation is severe enough to warrant an immediate ban.

What Happens When a User Is Banned

  • A ban record is created with the ban reason, the banning moderator, and a timestamp.
  • The user is removed from all channels in community groups.
  • The user is removed from all groups within the community.
  • The user is removed from the community membership.
  • If the banned user attempts to accept an invite to the community, they receive a Forbidden error.

All of these steps happen atomically in a single database transaction.

How to Ban a User

From the community settings page:

  1. Open the community settings and navigate to the Members tab.
  2. Find the user you want to ban.
  3. Click the Ban button next to their name.
  4. Enter an optional reason for the ban (up to 500 characters).
  5. Confirm the action.

From the API:

POST /api/communities/{communityId}/bans/{userId}

Request body: 

{
  "reason": "Repeated harassment after multiple warnings and timeouts."
}

The reason field is optional but strongly recommended. It is stored with the ban record and visible to other moderators in the ban list.

Ban Restrictions

  • You cannot ban yourself.
  • You cannot ban the Owner.
  • Moderators can only ban users with the Member role.
  • Admins can ban Members and Moderators, but not other Admins or the Owner.
  • If the user is not currently a member (already left or was kicked), the ban record is still created to prevent future rejoins.

Viewing the Ban List

Permission Required: Community Moderator or higher

The ban list shows all users who are currently banned from the community.

From the community settings page:

  1. Open the community settings.
  2. Navigate to the Bans tab.
  3. View the list of banned users with their username, display name, ban reason, and ban date.

From the API:

GET /api/communities/{communityId}/bans

The response includes: - user_id -- the banned user's ID - username -- the banned user's username - display_name -- the banned user's display name - reason -- the ban reason (if provided) - created_at -- when the ban was issued

The ban list is limited to the 500 most recent bans, sorted by date (newest first).

Unbanning a User

Permission Required: Community Moderator or higher

Unbanning removes the ban record, allowing the user to accept future invite links.

From the community settings page:

  1. Open the community settings and navigate to the Bans tab.
  2. Find the user you want to unban.
  3. Click the Unban button next to their name.

From the API:

DELETE /api/communities/{communityId}/bans/{userId}

Unbanning:

  • Removes the ban record from the database.
  • Records the action in the audit log (action: community_unban).
  • Does not automatically re-add the user to the community. They must use a new invite link to rejoin.

If no ban record exists for the specified user, the API returns a 404 error.

Community Ban vs. Instance-Level Suspension

It is important to understand the difference between these two actions:

Aspect Community Ban Instance Suspension
Scope One community Entire instance (all communities)
Who can do it Community Moderator+ Instance Admin or Owner
Effect Cannot rejoin that community Cannot log in at all
Reversible Yes (unban) Yes (unsuspend)
User's other communities Unaffected All inaccessible
Where to manage Community settings > Bans Admin panel > User Management

For instance-level suspensions, see the Admin Guide -- User Management.

Best Practices

  • Document the reason. Always provide a ban reason. Future moderators reviewing the ban list will need context about why the decision was made.
  • Consider a kick first. If you think the user might reform with a second chance, kick them instead of banning. They can rejoin via invite and start fresh.
  • Coordinate with your team. For borderline cases, discuss the situation with other moderators or admins before issuing a permanent ban.
  • Review periodically. Check your ban list from time to time. Some bans from months ago may no longer be necessary.

Next Steps