What are your thoughts on members using VPN's

[DigNap15]

Hello
My forum is a general one with one country as its focus.
I do get quite a few members joining up using what I think are vpns that make it appear they arre fror other exotic countries (not spammers)

Do you think they are using a vpn to get round my policy of only one account per member?

 

[Pete]

It’s possible, but given what you’ve said about your site and the politics involved, more likely people are using them for protection.

 

[DigNap15]

Our fourm is general but politics is our most popualr topc.

As 99% of our members use an anonymous user name - why would they need protection?

 

[Pete]

Because if the politics is controversial they might fear some kind of police response, seeing how IP addresses can otherwisebe used to track them down.

I dunno, I'm just going off what I've seen elsewhere... if in doubt ask them?

 

[mysiteguy]

I know people who only use the Internet through a VPN.

 

[zappaDPJ]

Connection via VPN is fine on the forums I own. I do however manage a couple of forums that are region specific where registration via VPN connection is blocked as are IPs outside of that area.

 

[Joeychgo]

For me, It's one of the indications that a new user may be a spammer. There are other things I look at, but I look deeper as soon as I see a vpn in use.

 

[FTL]

I don't have any restrictions on vpn use so far. Really not enough activity for it to matter yet.

 

[Num7]

I wouldn't mind VPNs at all if it wasn't for the trolls! To them, it's a free pass for trolling with impunity. Got banned because you were trolling and attacking people? No big deal, boot up your VPN and get revenge.

In your case, folks probably use it for protection. But I agree it can be kind of annoying and perhaps make your site look or behave differently than intended.

 

[LeadCrow]

Whatever works for people. There's additional methods to identify abnormal logins anyway and suspend any risky clearances (like the pm archive, staff sections, ip adresses) they mightve had access to until session trust level is restored anyway.

The exception is using vpns (the new name for proxies really since nobody can be fooled into paying) to evade corrective actions like bans, spam cleanup, rate controls (covers multiple accounts coordinating their action).

 

[DigNap15]

In my case - a mainly political forum based on one small country.
II have virtually no spammers
One or two might want to hide their identity for privacy reasons - but then again not many people sign up using their real email address eg myrealname@aol.com
I think most of my vpn (and TOR ) member do it so that they can have multiple accounts, which is against our rules

 

[Nev_Dull]

If you are concerned, zappaDPJ provided the easy answer; limit access to NZ only.

 

[DigNap15]

If you are concerned, zappaDPJ provided the easy answer; limit access to NZ only.

It is not easy to limit access to one country only

What If I want to allow genuine users from the USA or Australia? Many people from my country may live or work in Japan, so that would mean they could not acess my forum

As I have said my problem is that I feel some members use VPNs to allow them to have multiple accounts which do not get picked up by my Dupplicate account software checker.

 

[zappaDPJ]

As I have said my problem is that I feel some members use VPNs to allow them to have multiple accounts which do not get picked up by my Dupplicate account software checker.

There's an add-on for Xenforo which dumps a cookie on the member's PC which might help with that. It may be what you are already using but if not it's a simple solution with a surprisingly high success rate. I'd give you a link but I'm having a senior moment and can't for the life of me remember what it's called

 

[DigNap15]

There's an add-on for Xenforo which dumps a cookie on the member's PC which might help with that. It may be what you are already using but if not it's a simple solution with a surprisingly high success rate. I'd give you a link but I'm having a senior moment and can't for the life of me remember what it's called

I am using a XF add called Multi account Detector
It works in some ways, but it also gives many false positives
And I think that members using Vpns do not get picked up by it.

 

[woody]

There's an add-on for Xenforo which dumps a cookie on the member's PC which might help with that. It may be what you are already using but if not it's a simple solution with a surprisingly high success rate. I'd give you a link but I'm having a senior moment and can't for the life of me remember what it's called

Signup abuse detection and blocking

From (simple) multiple accounts detection to isp/connection fingerprinting with score-based moderating/rejecting logic. These are very effective low-hanging fruit at reducing spam. Supports migration configuration from the following XF1 add-ons...

xenforo.com

 

[zappaDPJ]

Thanks woody, that's the one