Once vane has been banned...

[So the Heroes Fall]

Can we finally just ban all posters who post from proxies exclusively? It's pretty obvious that all will be nothing but Hamilton socks.

[dead0man]

Agreed.  There is no good excuse to post from behind one.

[Lunar]

I'm not sure if there's a moderator who disagrees with you.

Dave hasn't weighed in on the matter.

[Senator Kalwejt]

Agreed.  There is no good excuse to post from behind one.

^^^

[Prez Duke]

Why exactly is vane posting again anyway? Wasn't he banned a few months ago?

[live free or die]

Why exactly is vane posting again anyway? Wasn't he banned a few months ago?

I'm posting because I want to. There's absolutely no reason to ban me other than hatred aimed at me from blatant trolls.

[The Mikado]

Why exactly is vane posting again anyway? Wasn't he banned a few months ago?

I'm posting because I want to. There's absolutely no reason to ban me other than hatred aimed at me from blatant trolls.

So...your definition of troll is, like, 90% of the forum including the entire moderating team?

[Smid]

Easier than trying to ban anyone posting exclusively from proxies is not giving registration in the first place to anyone applying for access from a proxy. That would require less action from Dave, and in the meantime the mods can keep an eye on other trolls and ban as required.

[Lunar]

Easier than trying to ban anyone posting exclusively from proxies is not giving registration in the first place to anyone applying for access from a proxy. That would require less action from Dave, and in the meantime the mods can keep an eye on other trolls and ban as required.

I agree with you that that should be implemented.   I'm not sure what the current policy on that is.

However -- one individual can probably reach over 50+ different IP's for registration purposes only in any given year without trying very hard (school libraries, friend's houses, free wireless hotspots, mobile devices, etc), and then use a proxy from their main computer.  Considering that it takes several months of trolling to get banned...

I mean, I myself regularly post from 4 different IP's (two jobs, home, phone) and have used several others in 2010.  If each of those IP's started an account where I trolled aggressively, I'd still be here in August.  And one of my jobs has 3 other IPs I could use, so I guess I could have well into 2011 even if I were trying to get each of my IPs banned. 

[live free or die]

Why exactly is vane posting again anyway? Wasn't he banned a few months ago?

I'm posting because I want to. There's absolutely no reason to ban me other than hatred aimed at me from blatant trolls.

So...your definition of troll is, like, 90% of the forum including the entire moderating team?

Not the entire moderating team. I wouldn't consider Peter or ag or afleitch to be trolls. 90% of our most frequent posters are trolls, though, yes.

[Senator Kalwejt]

Why exactly is vane posting again anyway? Wasn't he banned a few months ago?

I'm posting because I want to. There's absolutely no reason to ban me other than hatred aimed at me from blatant trolls.

So...your definition of troll is, like, 90% of the forum including the entire moderating team?

Not the entire moderating team. I wouldn't consider Peter or ag or afleitch to be trolls. 90% of our most frequent posters are trolls, though, yes.

'

Hammie, you won't get your account back anyway.,

[IDS Judicial Overlord John Dibble]

Agreed.  There is no good excuse to post from behind one.

What about paranoia? Just because I can't prove they are watching me doesn't mean they aren't!

[Lunar]

Agreed.  There is no good excuse to post from behind one.

What about paranoia? Just because I can't prove they are watching me doesn't mean they aren't!

Let's frame it this way:  

What's the harm of banning proxy accounts?  Insane paranoid posters will be forced to feel momentarily uncomfortable?  Who will leave the forum if this rule is instituted?  No one.  Which contributing forum members will contribute less?  No one.

What's the benefit?  We'll be able to fully ban trolls and force them to be 100x more creative in their usage of new IPs to disrupt the forum.   I'm sure you're aware of this, but some trolls are delusional, relentless sociopaths who will stop at nothing to disrupt some random forum on the internet where people just want to talk about politics.   These people need help, but they won't be able to find it here.

At the moment, the only proxy accounts I know of are 100% socks of previously banned poster(s) who were banned for violating the rules of this forum.  I'm not aware of any honest, authentic posters here who use proxies.   Even if we were to break from my subjective viewpoint and to enter objective measurements, I'm not even the slightest bit aware of a poster who uses proxies who doesn't consistently break the rules and have their posts reported and deleted far above the forum average (or at all).

[Joe Republic]

Dave hasn't weighed in on the matter.

That's not true:

I've installed a modification that is supposed to block registration from proxies.  We'll see how this works.  Unfortunately, it may also block legitimate posters from registering from schools.  I'm leery of blocking all posting from proxies since it will slow down performance and will often block intranet-based systems. 

[Lunar]

Oh.  Well, it'll be interesting to see how new sock registrations occur once this is over.

[IDS Judicial Overlord John Dibble]

Agreed.  There is no good excuse to post from behind one.

What about paranoia? Just because I can't prove they are watching me doesn't mean they aren't!

Let's frame it this way:  

What's the harm of banning proxy accounts?  Insane paranoid posters will be forced to feel momentarily uncomfortable?  Who will leave the forum if this rule is instituted?  No one.  Which contributing forum members will contribute less?  No one.

What's the benefit?  We'll be able to fully ban trolls and force them to be 100x more creative in their usage of new IPs to disrupt the forum.   I'm sure you're aware of this, but some trolls are delusional, relentless sociopaths who will stop at nothing to disrupt some random forum on the internet where people just want to talk about politics.   These people need help, but they won't be able to find it here.

At the moment, the only proxy accounts I know of are 100% socks of previously banned poster(s) who were banned for violating the rules of this forum.  I'm not aware of any honest, authentic posters here who use proxies.   Even if we were to break from my subjective viewpoint and to enter objective measurements, I'm not even the slightest bit aware of a poster who uses proxies who doesn't consistently break the rules and have their posts reported and deleted far above the forum average (or at all).

You sir clearly don't know what's it's like to be paranoid. I'm offended by your insensitivity towards myself and my paranoid brethren. I would challenge you to a duel, but I'm not entirely sure you aren't a CIA plant here to spy on me. The risk of capture is not worth it, even if the duel were to involve chainsaws as the weapon of choice, which would be totally awesome and I imagine it would look something like this