It is a place to put users who have violated the guidelines and ignored warnings. Users in the penalty box can still log in, but have restricted capabilities.

Penalty box placement can be temporary or permanent; it is dependent on the offence type and/or number of past offences.

Hover over 'My Account' in the top menu. If you are in the penalty box, you will see 'In Penalty Box' in red, and an expiry date.

Ensure you have both checked your private message inbox and clicked the 'reason' link on your penalty box notification as further information will often be detailed there. If you still do not understand why you have been put in the penalty box, you can use the Talk With A Moderator forum to ask for clarification. However, as moderators follow standard penalty durations, in most cases no negotiation will be entered into regarding shortening of lifting the penalty.

Hover over 'My Account' in the top menu. If you are in the penalty box, you will see 'In Penalty Box' in red, and an expiry date. If you are permanently banned, there will be no expiry date.

The expiration date of the penalty box will also be shown on your user profile page, i.e. clicking on your username at the top of the page.

For users in the penalty box, you cannot:

• Post or edit deals, competitions or forum topics
• Post comments
• Vote for/against deals, competitions and comments
• Submit reports
• Upload files to the media file uploader
• Send private messages

You can click on the user's username, and “In Penalty Box” will be printed under their name in the popup box. It will also be shown in their user profile page, along with a penalty expiration if the user is only in the penalty box temporarily.