User blog comment:Sarah Manley/Updates to Wikia Chat/@comment-4958179-20120508040840/@comment-67.101.5.142-20120509022026

Keep in mind that this is to help resolve the problem of old kickban being permanent. It would never expire until someone manually turned the kickban off. Unless a wiki had people that were willing to do this, some people being kicked out of chat for fairly minor things might never be allowed back in.

With the upgrade, durations and reasons can be specified why someone has to be removed from chat. The ban will automatically expire after the specified time and the person can get back into the chat. This allows admins and chat moderators to set more gentle corrective behavior, as well as help show which people are causing more serious problems.