Discord IP bans

IP bans are an inefficient method of banning users, and are easily bypassed by those trying to evade them, but catch innocent users as collateral damage. They cause more problems that they solve, and this has been an issue for a while now on Discord.

Innocent users can be caught by these bans if they have a dynamic or shared IP.  If a user uses a VPN, or connects to Discord through an internet cafe, school, or office, they may unknowingly share an IP with a previously banned user, resulting in them being banned. With dynamic IPs, which many internet service providers use, if an innocent user is assigned an IP previously used by a banned user they can be banned.

These bans however can easily be bypassed by VPNs, or if a users IP is dynamic they can simply reset their modem/router, or use a proxy server in order to get past the ban. 

The only solution given by Discord is as follows:
“If you can contact the server admins, could you ask them to revoke all the bans in their server settings > bans menu even if the Discord Tag isn't on the list?”
Large servers especially, who have to deal a large number of people will not be willing to unban everyone they've banned before, for obvious reasons. 

IP bans are useful for stopping certain users, but they come with disadvantages that could be easily remedied.

Discord could offer server owners an option to whitelist certain IPs, or to whitelist a certain user, regardless of their IP - and possibly even offer a ticket system, where when a user attempts to join a server and they're banned, they can submit a request to be whitelisted.