The time of automatic review bans should be increased with every new ban

Question

The way the current auto-bans for reviews work is rather suboptimal. Somebody who's really after the badges and doesn't care whether they're banned for two days can just continue clicking through, without fearing the next ban—because hey, it'll be two days again. You just wait it off and continue.

See for example this review robot, who has been banned five times—and nobody noticed!

Mar 28  user has been banned from review  duration = 30 days by Sathya
Mar 22  user has been banned from review  duration = 2 days
Mar 11  user has been banned from review  duration = 2 days
Mar 7   user has been banned from review  duration = 2 days
Mar 1   user has been banned from review  duration = 2 days
Feb 25  user has been banned from review  duration = 2 days

Quite recently we had another user who is quite persistent at reviewing, even though they've been told to pay more attention. They were now banned for the third time and we didn't notice.

Here's another example:

Jul 10  user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Jul 4   user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Jul 1   user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Jun 26  user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Mar 28  user has been banned from review    duration = 30 days
Mar 22  user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Mar 11  user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Mar 7   user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Mar 1   user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days
Feb 25  user has been banned from review    duration = 2 days

Obviously, even after being banned for an entire month, this user managed to continue failing audits like crazy. He's now banned for another 30 days accompanied with a mod message.

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One helpful tool would be to see how often users have been previously banned. Even that requires moderators to actively ban someone though.

But if we expect the system to do some automatic checks, why shouldn't the duration of bans increase? Much like the suspensions, which progress from 7 to 30 and 365 days.

For example:

• First ban: 2 days
• Second ban: 7 days
• Third ban: 14 days
• Fourth ban: 365 days
• …

Those numbers are of course up for discussion. Just an example.

This would ensure review robots can't just go on doing what they do without really getting into trouble.

Answer 1

This has been implemented and deployed in build 2013.7.26.1279 (meta) / 2013.7.26.898 (sites). The triggering mechanism was not changed. It can be turned on or off on each site. When turned on it works like this:

each review ban counts (even manual ones made by moderators).
a 30 day window is used
1st ban within the window -> duration: 2 days
2nd ban within the window -> duration: 7 days 
3rd ban within the window -> duration: 30 days 

Robo-reviewers, beware!!!1

Answer 2

I think the intervals would be better set up like this:

First ban: 2 days - Inform the user of escalating consequences should the poor reviews continue.
Second ban: 7 days - Remove that day's badge progress
Third ban: 30 days - Remove all badge progress, restart at 0
Fourth ban: 365 days - Remove the ability to earn review related badges altogether
Fifth ban: Permanent.

It's time our review system grew some teeth...

Answer 3

I think the ban times should decay over time.

Bantime_1 = 2 days
Bantime_n = (Lb - Wa) * 3 days

where Lb is the last bantime, Wa is the number of weeks since the last ban during which the user completed at least 25 reviews.

This way, users' bantimes don't become excessively long, but still grow exponentially if they are consistently banned. If a bantime would be less than two days, make it two days.

Answer 4

While the idea that robo reviewers should be banned for longer is worth taking into account, please note the number of disputed audits.

As currently implemented, it's almost impossible (for reviewers that don't "cheat" using enhancements detecting audits) not to fail an audit from time to time! Implementing your request literally would eventually permanently ban all reviewers.

The ban should be increased only if the reviewer continues with failed audits after previous ban is lifted. Good audit history before meeting new review ban should not result in more severy ban.

Such implementations would target only those reviewers, who show no improvement and tend to robo-review. The reviewers that get a ban occasionally because audits are chosen blindly should not be punished.

Answer 5

I've been banned a few times. Sometimes I was careless, other times it was not very clear what the Audit Problem was.

Honestly, by failing audits I've learned better what StackOverflow looks for in Questions and Answers.

And further, little of this understanding could be built another way. As time goes by, I pass more and more audit questions.

I think the real problem is badges. I don't give a !@$*@ about these kinds of badges. They actually hurt my performance of reviews because when I get one, I almost feel like "why bother" reviewing more now that I have this badge.

But the sad part is, I wasn't reviewing for that reason before.

Answer 6

What about either x days (after the last ban was lifted) or y audits with no more than z failed decreases the ban counter by one?

Ban   Duration
1st     2 days
2nd     7 days
3rd    30 days
4th+  365 days

(every ban from the 4th onwards will be 365 days)

Let's say x = 20 and y = 30 and z = 1 (I have no idea whether these values are even remotely acceptable, one way or the other).

After your first ban is over, you need to pass the next 30 audits or wait 20 days.

If you fail one of those 30 within 20 days, you'll get banned for 7 days.

If you then pass 30 audits, the ban counter will decrease to 1.

If you then fail, you'll get banned for 7 days again.

Note: I added a z variable here (it was previously just 1) in case we feel that passing y audits in a row is too difficult.

The main purpose here is to favour users who review a lot by taking into account both how many audits you've passed and how much time period has passed since your last ban.