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VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━


TL;DR

  • A VPN hides the real IP, so abuse cannot be traced back to a real person.
  • That makes bans, moderation and accountability optional for bad actors.
  • Honest members carry the full risk. Abusers carry none.
  • Proposal: block account creation over VPN. Browsing and logging in stay untouched.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:

Honest members participate openly and carry the full risk.
Bad actors hide behind a VPN and carry none.

Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.





 
Register to hide this ad
VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━





━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:



Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.




Mods can still see both your vpns ?
 
VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━





━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:



Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.




because of IP bans if some n****r sends CP in here he should get Ip banned thats why
 
VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━





━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:



Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.




High IQ post, I agree fully. Things like this is a real problem and allows anyone to do anything and post nay type of content with no real reprocussions
 
this is a forum u dont get ip banned, if u reset website cookies all bans and relations with previous accounts go away, u dont need vpn to evade
 
i don't think much real abuse happens in this forum
this is not org, it's quite tame
alot of people might not be comfortable with their ips being known by owners/mods
 
i don't think much real abuse happens in this forum
this is not org
alot of people might not be comfortable with their ips being known by owners/mods
yeah bro idk if I want @Dean knowing my full address date of birth social security number what I ate for lunch
 
VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━





━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:



Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.




There isn't much things bad enough happening in this site to warrant such a change. Every degenerate who gets banned due to genuinely bad stuff is an org migrant who doesn't care about the site enough to make an alt.
I also just don't particularly trust most of the moderators with my IP, the moderation team is almost half teens who are (with no disrespect intended) not as fair as some of the older mods.
This is .org and I don't think it needs to be like org
 
1787424818705.webp
 
VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━





━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:



Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.




very nice
 
VPN REGISTRATIONS ON .COM
Why We Should Stop Allowing Them

A formal proposal for staff and members

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━





━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 1. The Core Problem

We want a forum that stays clean, safe and fair β€” for everyone. That is not achievable while anyone can create an account behind a VPN.

A VPN masks the real IP address. Without it, linking malicious activity to a specific person becomes extremely difficult, often impossible.

Someone who covers their tracks will do things they would never risk otherwise β€” and walk away from it.

This isn't about distrusting VPN users. It's about the fact that our only enforcement tool loses its teeth.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 2. What This Enables

  • Ban evasion & multi-accounting
    Clear cookies, switch browser, switch VPN node β€” the banned user is back in under a minute. Bans stop being consequences and become inconveniences. Trolls return indefinitely, and staff burn hours on the same person under ten names.​
  • Doxxing, blackmail & targeted harassment
    Personal data gets posted, threats get made, members get followed across threads β€” and we cannot trace the real source.
    The attacker stays anonymous. The victim does not.
  • Illegal content & platform liability
    With insults, hate speech, or worse, we can barely demonstrate who was behind it. That raises the legal exposure of the entire platform β€” and indirectly of every single member who posts here.​
  • Scams and marketplace fraud
    Disposable accounts are the standard tool for anyone selling something they never intend to deliver. No traceability means no recourse.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 3. Why This Affects Everyone

These are not theoretical risks. Anyone participating here can become the target. One determined anonymous user is enough to poison the atmosphere for hundreds.

The imbalance is the actual issue:



Every rule we write is only as strong as our ability to enforce it. Right now, that ability is opt-out.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 4. "But VPNs Are Legitimate" β€” Addressing the Counterarguments

Fair objections deserve real answers, so here they are.

"I use a VPN for privacy, not abuse."
Understood β€” and nothing changes for you. The proposal targets registration only. Once your account exists, use a VPN freely, every day, forever.​

"Determined people will bypass it anyway."
Correct, and irrelevant. Security is about raising cost, not achieving perfection. Locks don't stop lockpickers; they stop everyone else. Most ban evasion is lazy and opportunistic β€” a registration barrier removes the majority of it.​

"Some users need a VPN to access the site at all."
Valid β€” and solvable. A manual approval route (see below) covers genuine cases without leaving the door open by default.​

"This will cost us new members."
A small number, yes. But an unmoderatable forum loses far more members β€” quietly, permanently, and exactly the ones worth keeping.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 5. The Proposal

Deliberately minimal. Maximum effect, minimum friction.

  1. Block account creation from known VPN, proxy and datacenter IP ranges.
    Registration only. Nothing else.​
  2. Do not block browsing or logging in.
    Existing members are unaffected, period.​
  3. Show a clear error message, not a dead page.
    "Registration is not available over VPN. Disable it to sign up.​
  4. Publish a transparent rules guide.
    Every member should know exactly what is allowed and what isn't. I'm happy to write this up if the proposal goes through.​


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 6. What Changes For You

  • Already have an account? Nothing changes. Nothing at all.
  • Use a VPN daily? Keep using it. Log in and post as always.
  • Registering a new account? Turn the VPN off for two minutes, or message staff.
  • Evading a ban? This is for you.


━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

β–Œ 7. Bottom Line

We want a forum where rules can actually be enforced and where members feel safe. That is only possible if the barrier to anonymous abuse accounts stays high.

We should consistently prevent accounts
from being created over VPN on .com.


That is how the forum stays clean, safe and fair β€” for every one of us.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Thoughts, objections and counterproposals are welcome below.
Vote in the poll so staff can see where the community stands.




Lemme read and I comeback to you
 

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