Being for an indefinite period of time is not part of the definition of the word ban. It is defined as a verb, that means to officially or legally prohibit. One example usage I found from an authoritative source (Google) is, "he was banned from driving for a year." And in fact, it is quite common for bans to be lifted.

@Octopus - can you provide a link? I looked up three really good sources and their examples and all use the word ban in an indefinite sense or for really really long time periods. I never can across an example for a year or a couple years, let alone a day or week like the OPs example.

Google "define ban." Also none of the first three links provide definitions that include any sense of permanency. Besides, the onus is really on you to provide a definition that states that it is permanent.

@Octopus - OK I added examples. Yours never came up. You get an English lesson and answer!

I'm not convinced. All of your examples can be lifted tomorrow.

@Octopus - It is obvious you don't get it. A king can ban someone from his country and then die and the next king could let him back in tomorrow. What you are saying is "anything could happen". I agree. You do not understand the usage of the word though. Ban is used to express an official halt on doing something that does not intend to be changed. Suspension means that there is a temporary halt over a given time frame.

@blankip - Just letting you know, you misspelled "banish."

The word "ban" makes no implications about its duration. The word "suspend" implies something temporary. So "suspended" and "temporarily banned" communicate a similar message, while "temporarily suspended" still makes sense but is redundant. You chose an odd point to nitpick.

@BrianMortenson - You are correct in definition but incorrect in historical usage. Almost all words have a long period of usage that adds to their context and these things are not always given in basic definitions. The word "ban" historically has been very permanent.

"Part of his bail condition bans him from the Hoover Drive area." uses "ban" in an inherently temporary fashion, since bail will end when they decided his guilt or innocence, or at least when they sentence him. There are thousands of uses of "temporarily banned" in Google Books by respectable authors.

@prosfilaes - first because other authors can't figure out that temporarily banned means suspended doesn't mean we should continue using the wrong wording. Second in your example he is permanently banned during his bail period! If he were suspended during his bail period it would be unknown to as if he could venture to the Hoover Drive area before his bail period ended. Well we could say he was permanently suspended :)

blankip - Wait, what? You just said that (many) words have a historical usage that adds to context beyond the definition of the word. Then in response to @prosfilaes comment about how "temporarily banned" is historically used, you (basically) said that those uses were by authors who didn't know the definition of the word "banned" and strongly inferred that a word should only be used as defined. You can't have it both ways.

@KevinFegan - A lot of tech apps are made by people who speak Engrish. Just because they existed for a while does not mean that we have accepted the terms as correct English. I hope you think the phrase "permanently suspended" is just as awkward - and something a person with any education wouldn't come up with.

Here are a couple of examples: If someone attempts to enter another country and something is found to be improper with their documents, they often are "banned" from re-entry (or attempting to re-enter) for a defined period of time. Depending on the severity issue, the ban may be for a relatively short period (a year or less), to several years. Yes, in "extreme" cases the ban may be permanent, but in that case, it is stated as a "banned permanently" (or "banned for life"). It also may be "banned" until such a time as some specific issue is resolved, which while indefinite, not permanent.

... "Flight ban" where flights to or from a particular area are banned. There are of course cases where this is for a long, indefinite time (permanent), but the vast majority of the time, it is for a relatively short time period (perhaps only hours-long, but often only days or weeks), or an indefinite period that is expected to be relatively short. Protection orders ban someone from being at or near a place or another person nearly always have an "expire" date in months or up to a year... rarely permanent. Many laws ban certain activity for a defined period of time ("Sunset" provisions).

I get that you don't like the use of terms like "permanently suspended" or "temporarily banned", and I agree that in certain uses, they seem awkward, but that does not make it wrong or improper in all cases. Use the terms you prefer, but that doesn't mean others are wrong for using them differently. I prefer to use the term "most common" but others may say "commonest". To me "commonest" sounds awkward, but both are grammatically correct.

Also, "suspended" has connotations that "banned" doesn't. "Suspended" infers some sort of relationship existed prior to being suspended. "Banned" has no such inference... you can be "banned" from doing something, or being somewhere that you never previously had a right to do or be. "Suspended" indicates revocation of something that you were previously able to do.

Actually, how English speakers use a word do establish how English speakers find it acceptable to use a word, and if you look at Google Books, the works that use "temporarily banned" are not generally in Engrish.

@prosfilaes - EXACTLY! If you are going to write an app correctly in English the user will have a better experience if English is used correctly. My point is the author is already making a glaring mistake in English usage and that should be corrected first.

What has this got to do with the question? You seem to have gone on a rant about a use of the word ban that the original question doesn't even mention or imply...

@JBentley - How does it not mention it? It is in the title of the question. He is talking about suspending users and is using the word ban.

Nowhere in the title or question does it say anything about suspending users, timers, time frames, or anything else that implies suspension. The OP is quite clear that he does indeed mean banned users, in the way that you are defining the word. He wants to know how banned users should be dealt with when they attempt to login after being banned.

As far as I can tell "ban"/"banned" has never exclusively meant permanently. Also, words change all the time which is why Latin is no longer a living language but many of Europe's languages are derived from it. The same goes for the Germanic ancestor of English. To think that a word's meaning is fixed for all time is as ridiculous as thinking that a ban is for all time. See the definition of ban on Wiktionary