Would you think it would be a good idea if the moderators had access to the IP addresses of all corespondants on this board.

In that way people who were not who they say they are could be easily identified, and kept off the board as required.

If not the Moderators, then an open show of IP's would allow those of a technical bent to see who was who?

This has worked on previous boards that I have posted on, and has been most successful.

I am open to all ideas.

Why would you want to know IPs? Showing IPs might result in violations of well, umm, to keep the terminology simple, personal privacy.

Don't moderators have access to posters' IPs? vBulletin certainly has that option (THAT I know for sure). But I don't see why the IPs should be made PUBLIC (i.e. for everyone to see). I don't agree with the latter, but I don't have a problem with the former.

I think the tagline under you name would answer this one to most people.

What? I'm sorry, I don't quite get what you're saying.

The word "anarchy" is from the Greek, prefix an (or a), meaning "not," "the want of," "the absence of," or "the lack of", plus archos, meaning "a ruler," "director", "chief," "person in charge," or "authority."
Or, as Peter Kropotkin put it, Anarchy comes from the Greek words meaning "contrary to authority."

I would not have thought that anyone who was an anarchist would want anyone "in power or authority" to know what they were doing or where they were.

Beats me too, why someone will want to know other peoples IP addresses, the mods and owner of the site already have that info anyway, and if you are technology inclined, there are programs out there, that can give you that info.

Also.....most people are using firewalls, anonymous surfing programs that re-route your IP address through hubs, and other kind of security programs anyway, and you will be silly not to, in this day and age

IP addresses can also be renewed now and again, and if you are on dial-up, your IP address changes everytime you log on, so what is the point?

What? Who cares if the ones in "power" knew what I was doing? And your suggestion doesn't exactly solve that, does it? On the contrary, it allows EVERYONE to 'know what I am doing'. So why should I support THAT? Not that I care anyway (but I know a lot of people wouldn't want their IPs to be posted in public). *shrug*

squarepants, yes, I know.. but some people aren't all that technologically-inclined, and quite a lot of people do not have appropriate protection on their computers. Would they want their IPs posted in public (especially if it's not dynamic), when I'm sure there will be many people surfing forums looking for public IP addresses that they can try to find a backdoor into (I've seen these things happen, so I know what I'm talking about)? :scared:

No thanks

I have seen a lot of things happen too, as I am in IT. When we are out and about, and am on my wireless blackberry from work you will be surprised at how wide open some systems are, people don't bother to have WEP enabled

Everyone should have a firewall on their system, things like sygate are free to download, and there is zone alarm.

As far as I know at least some of the Moderators do have access to IP info. But if some assholes want to come here and pretend to be something they are not, there is not a lot they can do, and it seems unreasonable to ask even more of the volunteer mods than what they already do.

Its up to us all as adults to use our judgment as to whos posts are usefull and whos arent, and as in any other avenue of life if something seems odd, get a second opinion, in fact get one anyway!

They mods know who the troublemakers are, and use IP info to look for new users that match banned IPs, but my suggestion is that maybe if we as a group just dont respond to posts by those we know are a bit bogus or are making it harder to find answers/ questions among all the noise, they will soon get bored, and then maybe things will return to normal sooner.

My mischevious side wants to suggest that if any user manages to make it onto a large enough number of ignore lists, then the "system" (whatever that is) should flag it to the mods so they can consider pulling the plug on them, but my practical side realises that bans dont work, as users just get a new handle, or if necessasry a new IP, and then we all have to figure out who they are again before we can take the higher road to enlightenment and use the filters provided again.

To put a user onto your ignore list, click on their name, select "view public profile" to access there profile, and click on "add ____ to your ignore list" in the blue bar under where it says "last activity"

OK, you can all start to ignore me now, I'm one of the worst for taking thread of topic, but not this time!

Iain

Haha, I'm an expert at that! See, I already did it!

I don't agree with the "ignore list" thing.. I mean, it's entirely possible that one is notorious around here for one's political views, and might appear on many people's ignore lists, but that doesn't mean one should be banned as a result, does it?

Don't most ISPs randomly assign them anyway? Never really understood how an IP ban could work, for that reason.

If your political views are irritating enough people that you make it onto the list, then maybe you should be banned, after all this isnt a democracy here, its an oligarchy, and the mods are in charge

All I was suggesting is that if a user is formally ignored by enough people, then the mods should be flagged, and they can then look at that persons worth to the forum and decide if action is required. Its just an easy way for the mods to judge the way the group feels about any poster, but of course its open to abuse, and therefore need some manual intervention. I wasnt suggesting an automatic banning system, just using the ignore list as a barometer of public opinion, like an ignore list "top ten" then a newcomer like the original poster could get an idea of who is considerd a nuisance by others, before making there own choice.

An additional benefit is that the posters on the "top ten" might consider altering there behaviour if they new just how they were viewed by there peers.

If it's not a democracy, then your view on this doesn't count anyway.