IP Proxies

Hello admins,

I was just wondering, I was logged on to YC earlier today and I was just playing around with proxies, when I got this message on YC:

(I got that almost directly after I applied a general proxy to firefox).

(BTW, I assume this is not how it's supposed to look, because when I refreshed it showed the page properly, but that's exactly the result I got when I added the proxy and without refreshing the page, just I guess as soon as my computer sent information over to your servers) (I was using Firefox 3.0.5 under Microsoft Windows XP SP2)

I want to ask two things:

First of all, isn't this violating our personal rights? If someone wants to hide their IP address (for one reason or the other), they should be able to do so.

Secondly, it seems absurd to me that it is allowed for guest users to view the website regardless of whether they are using a proxy or not, whereas the regular members of the site (which have to log in anyway) are required to not use any public proxy; I would have personally expected it to be the other way around.

Or in the very least, if a member decides to use a proxy, it should get a warning that the administrators have been notified that that user is no longer using his normal address but is using a proxy, but not disable completely any kind of use of the website.

The message looks a bit malformed because it was generated by the pager. I've made a little modification to prevent it displaying like that again.

As for the proxy blocking policy itself: a search revealed that it was introduced in response to unruly members using proxies to repeatedly circumvent IP bans.

First of all, isn't this violating our personal rights? If someone wants to hide their IP address (for one reason or the other), they should be able to do so.

While I see your point when this sentiment is applied to the internet as a whole, I do think individual sites (i.e. private organisations according to the law) should be left to make such decisions according to their own discretion.

Secondly, it seems absurd to me that it is allowed for guest users to view the website regardless of whether they are using a proxy or not, whereas the regular members of the site (which have to log in anyway) are required to not use any public proxy; I would have personally expected it to be the other way around.

As outlined above, the policy was introduced in light of the behaviour of certain members - I trust this clarifies why the restriction only applies to logged-in users.

Or in the very least, if a member decides to use a proxy, it should get a warning that the administrators have been notified that that user is no longer using his normal address but is using a proxy, but not disable completely any kind of use of the website.

Possibly, but if someone then starts trolling using proxies, we might not be able to re-apply the restriction without adversely affecting other users. I suppose they could then revert back to their original IP address, however.

I'm not really sure if it would be worth the effort to renovate the code that governs this. If others feel strongly and/or can put forward good reasons as to why the block is a bad thing, we can consider modifying or lifting it.

Ok, fair enough. I didn't think about banned members, and that's a good reason. Although there are still ways to overcome this, I guess. If someone's using DHCP, banning their IP altogether (regardless of whether they have proxies or not) is not going to do much.

But thanks for answering my questions :)

First of all, isn't this violating our personal rights? If someone wants to hide their IP address (for one reason or the other), they should be able to do so.

If you register in a forum, web site, blog, etc. the Administrators can see the IP no matter what. you can't really hide it from them.

If you register in a forum, web site, blog, etc. the Administrators can see the IP no matter what. you can't really hide it from them.

The administration can see an IP for every user, that's true, but that doesn't mean it is the user's actual IP. I have a proxy that can make my IP address resolve somewhere in Ireland... and I live in Canada. YC wouldn't be able to tell that it wasn't my real IP (at least with it's current software) (...I hope).

However, I agree that the policy is a little... redundant? If a troublesome user wanted to hide their IP, it would take them about 5 minutes on Google to find a way to do so that can get around using public proxies. Then again, most troublesome members are just mischievous and not hell-bent on causing a stir.

Hmm my proxy seems to be working. *whistles* It should say Chicago or st Louis.

Edit: Before someone ask me to use my real one. I do sometimes. However, that's when I'm on a different computer. I'm not allowed to use my real ip address when i'm on this computer, governmental stuff on it.