Long story short, waaaaaaaay back in the dark ages when game mods didn't have access to IP bans and we had to badger [violet] when one was needed, we had a VERY persistent shock image spammer. The problem was, his IP pointed to basically the second-largest service provider in New Zealand, and they routed ALL of their traffic through that one IP. So IP banning him was effectively IP banning a sizable chunk of New Zealand. Eventually this spammer became enough of a nuisance that "a huge chunk of New Zealand" was deemed acceptable collateral damage, especially as complaints to the ISP seemed to be falling on deaf ears. If I recall, once the IP ban was in place, blocked users were taken to a page explaining why they couldn't access and suggesting they contact their service provider. Between that and Max brandishing a lawyer threateningly in their direction, the ISP finally dealt with their problem user.