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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.




i reject vpns anyway
 
i reject vpns anyway
tuberculosisinmybal
 
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.




Dnr
 
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.




mirin the formatting ngl
 
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.




all forums almost buns

you can use a sandbox to sign up upon all forums

vpn doesn't stop users
 
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
Maybe, maybe not but our saftey is importent.

So @Dean stop allowing people using a vpn when they create an account.
 
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.




 
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.




Jokes on everyone I was in a different location when I registered and I wasn't even using a VPN lol
 
You don’t understand how this shit works…it’s just about creating an account with vpn.

You can use your vpn after you got an account.
i was saying it ironically like as a satire but ok
 
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.




Bump
 
Ignoring the AI slop of this. I think this concept stems from ignorance on how content and forum moderation is meant to work. NONE of these sites should give volunteers IP access, I'm not actually sure why they do. They don't actually contribute to anything.

Most websites have a confidence score on signup. Most websites have moderation tools that help with detecting bad actors. None of these require IP information to be available to moderators.

IPs literally have 0 factor in anything. Anyone who signs up with a VPN isn't usually the problem anyways, and if users signed up with no VPN it wouldn't make the site better or more enjoyable to use, all it does is collect more data on the user for literally no reason.

The genuine solution is to add more moderation tools, not FORCE users to give away more user data. I've literally never been in a community before where users are legitimately asking site admins to collect more info on users like this, and think it's actually going to solve anything. :sadge:

If this change shall occur, the Terms of Service need to be modified to explicitly prevent any other unfactored use of your ip.
That's not what the Terms of Service is. The Terms of Service is meant to be your agreement with the site when you register, it's not meant to be used as a staff code of conduct. The way your data is handled is usually under a Privacy Policy under "How we handle your data".
 
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.




Opsec level: goy
 

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