Banning a member

To remove a disruptive member or a spammer from the group and prevent them from rejoining at that email address:

1. Display the member’s record.
2. If desired, enter a moderator note about why you are banning this member. The note will be saved in the member’s record, which is retained even after the member is banned. Such notes can be helpful to other moderators who might review the member’s record.
   Restriction: The records of past members are available only in Premium and Enterprise groups.
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click or tap the Ban button. 
4. When the Verify Ban confirmation popup appears, click or tap Yes.

If the group has an active Banned Member notice, the member receives that notice automatically.

Tip: You can proactively ban an email address that you know belongs to a spammer or other undesirable member, to prevent them from trying to join the group. View the instructions.

Note:

• You cannot ban someone who is the sole owner of a subgroup. You must change the subgroup’s owner first.
• Banning applies only to that specific email address. It is possible for someone to try to join or rejoin using another email address.
• A banned member who is logged in to Groups.io with the banned email address will not be able to see the group’s home page. If they try to go to the group’s home page (for example, by entering the group’s URL in their web browser), they will be redirected to the most recent group home page they visited, where they will see a “You are not a member of this group” notice in a red box at the top of the page.
• A banned member who is not logged in to Groups.io and goes to the group’s home page, clicks the Join This Group button (or the Apply For Membership button in a restricted group), and enters the banned email address will see a “That email has been banned from the group” notice on the page after they click the Confirm Email Address button. This action is also recorded in the group’s activity log.
• A banned member who sends an email message from the banned email address to the group’s posting address will receive a delivery failure notification that contains the statement “You are not allowed to post to that group.” This action is also recorded in the group’s activity log.
• A banned member who attempts to subscribe by email from the banned email address (by sending a message to the group’s +subscribe address) will receive a delivery failure notification that contains the statement “This email has been banned from the group.” This action is also recorded in the group’s activity log.
• The group retains information about members who were banned, including any moderator notes about them, messages they sent to the owner email address, their join dates, and so on.
• In Premium and Enterprise groups, banned members are included in the Past Members list. Those groups also have the option to ban entire domains.

Unbanning a member

If you find you need to reinstate (unban) a member who was banned (for example, if the banning was an error), follow these steps:

1. Display the member list.
2. Click or tap the Filter button at the top of the page.
3. In the filter list, select the Banned checkbox, then go to the bottom of the filter list and click or tap Apply.
4. In the resulting list of banned members, select the checkbox next to the member’s row.
5. Click or tap the Actions button at the bottom of the list, and select Unban from the list.
6. When the Verify Action confirmation popup appears, click or tap Yes. The member is removed from the Banned list.

Note: The member will need to rejoin the group (by invitation, through direct add, or by requesting to join). They do not become a group member again automatically after being unbanned.

Viewing a list of banned members

1. Display the member list.
2. Click or tap the Filter button at the top of the page.
3. In the filter list, select the Banned checkbox.
4. Go to the bottom of the filter list and click or tap Apply. The page is refreshed and displays a list of members who were banned from the group.