[roger_smith]

Apparently people are confused about permanent bans, so I thought I'd shed some light on it.

The forum system has different ban options. When someone is banned, a time can be set depending on ban reason. Bans can have a time from as little as an hour, up to a permanent ban.

A "permanent ban" has no set expiration date. It's indefinite as far as the forum software is concerned.

In contrast, a privileged user of the forum (such as the Administrator) has the ability to remove a permanent ban. This has happened in the past, and completely within the right of the owner of the forum to make such decisions. A permanent ban is "permanent" in the sense of it doesn't have a set expiration. It is NOT permanent in the sense of "can never possibly ever be changed ever."

I hope this clears things up.