# Banning

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Requires the **Manage/View ban rules and reasons** user permissions to edit or view.
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If a person in your audience has demonstrate rude, inappropriate, malicious, or otherwise abusive behaviour, you can ban them with custom reasons and durations.

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## Configuration

To manage the ban settings, go to the [settings panel](https://documentation.proto.cx/docs/settings/settings) and select **Banning**.

### Ban Rules

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The number of ban rules available depends on the subscription plan.
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A ban rule is the preset duration of a ban based on the number of offences a person has had. It is not mandatory to produce ban rules but can help assign bans faster.

#### Create or Edit a Ban Rule

1. In the Ban Rule tab, select an existing **rule** from the table, or make a new one with **Create Ban Rule**.
2. Edit its options in the opened panel:
   * **Number of offences** — a person's number of bans that will inform the ban length.
   * **Ban length** — can be set from **minutes** to **months**, or be a **permanent** ban.
3. Select **Create** or **Save**.

#### Delete a Ban Rule

1. In the Ban Rules table, select one or more rule **checkboxes**.
2. Select **Delete Ban Rule** and confirm.

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### Ban Reasons

Ban reasons are internal notes that help distinguish why someone was banned.

#### Create or Edit a Ban Reason

1. In the Ban Reasons tab, select an existing **reason** from the table, or make a new one with **Create Ban Reason**.
2. In the opened panel, define the **reason** with text.
3. Select **Create** or **Save**.

#### Delete a Ban Reason

1. In the Ban Reasons table, select one or more reason **checkboxes**.
2. Select **Delete Ban Reason** and confirm.

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## Applying a Ban

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Applying a ban requires at least one Ban Reason be defined first.
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1. From the **Inbox** dashboard, have the person's conversation open and go to the **Person** tab in the right-side panel. Or, from the **People** dashboard, select a **person** in the table to open their panel.
2. In the panel, next to their name (or "Unknown"), open the options menu with **⋮** and select **Ban**.
3. In the Ban Customer menu select a **Reason for the ban** (defined above), and set the **Ban Length,** which defaults to a Ban Rule if one exists and applies to the person's number of offences.
4. Press **Save**. Any existing ban applied to the same person is overridden.