Automatic repeat-spammer bans and suspensions
Forum Fortress can optionally ask your forum to ban or suspend a repeat spammer for seven days after multiple high-confidence blocks. The forum applies the action using its own native moderation system; Forum Fortress does not directly delete accounts or posts.
This feature is Off by default on fresh installs and upgrades. Existing sites continue to allow or block individual actions exactly as before until an administrator explicitly enables the local repeat-offender setting. The option is available in compatible releases of all eight supported forum integrations.
When does an automatic action happen?
A repeat-offender ban or suspension requires two independent, confirmed high-confidence BLOCK decisions within 24 hours. Each response must explicitly contain the service's escalation_eligible: true certificate, which confirms that its original score was strictly above 80 and met the service's eligibility criteria. Two copies of the same submission or decision do not count as independent events.
Additional safeguards depend on the forum platform. As a rule, the account must belong to an ordinary, recently registered member (no more than seven days old and with no more than ten posts or comments). Staff, moderators, administrators, guests, system accounts, established members and already-restricted accounts are excluded. Registration failures, service outages and older or uncertified responses cannot trigger automatic account enforcement.
Enforcement runs after the normal spam check, through native forum jobs, tasks or schedulers rather than an additional HTTP request during submission. The job rechecks the local setting, account eligibility and permissions before acting. Where a required extension, scheduled task or transactional database capability is unavailable, normal Forum Fortress blocking still works but automatic bans do not run.
Enable it on your forum
| Platform | Where to find the setting | Action and prerequisites |
|---|---|---|
| Flarum | Extensions → Anti-Spam – Forum Fortress | Suspend repeat spammers for seven days; requires Flarum Suspend and a working scheduler. |
| XenForo | Setup → Options → Forum Fortress | Automatically ban repeat spammers for seven days; uses XenForo's native job and ban controls. |
| phpBB | ACP → Extensions → Forum Fortress → Maintenance → Protection | Automatically ban repeat spammers for seven days; requires native cron and supported transactional tables. |
| Invision Community | Forum Fortress settings in AdminCP | Automatically ban repeat spammers for seven days; uses a native scheduled task. |
| SMF | Configuration → Modification Settings → Forum Fortress | Automatically ban confirmed repeat spammers for seven days; requires its enabled scheduled task and compatible database setup. |
| MyBB | Configuration → Forum Fortress | Ban repeat spammers for seven days; requires the repeat-spammer task, a safe banned group and supported database transactions. |
| Discourse | Site settings → Plugins → Forum Fortress | Set Repeat offender action to suspend; uses native Discourse suspension and background work. |
| NodeBB | ACP → Plugins → Forum Fortress | Set Repeated high-confidence spam blocks to Ban the member for seven days; uses native NodeBB bans. |
These are forum-side settings, not portal-wide toggles. For the precise requirements, exemptions, receipts, job scheduling and reversal procedure, follow the linked guide for your platform.
What it does not do
- No automatic spam cleaning: this feature does not purge posts, erase an account's history, delete the member or remove older spam. Existing spam still needs normal forum moderation.
- No permanent account deletion or indefinite ban: the automated account action is a native seven-day restriction, which an administrator can review or reverse in the forum.
- No action based solely on an ordinary BLOCK: the separate high-confidence eligibility certificate is required. Old plugin or service responses without it cannot trigger an account restriction.
- No retroactive sweep: enabling the option does not walk old posts or account histories looking for members to ban.
Disabling the option stops new pending enforcement but does not automatically lift restrictions already applied through the forum's moderation system. Use your forum's native ban or suspension management to reverse them. Some platforms retain a receipt so an automatically restricted account is not automatically restricted again after an administrator reverses the action.
XenForo note: the separately offered Soft Delete Purge add-on handles a different cleanup task and is not part of the Forum Fortress repeat-offender option.
See also How Forum Fortress works, Frequently asked questions, and the individual installation guides.