13 replies
As of today the "who's online" is limited to forum names - the IP info has been blocked.

That tells me FL doesn't want to know - or want members to know - how many on this forum are claiming US and UK residence and posting from India, Ukraine, and similarly placed countries.

Nothing wrong with those countries - or with marketers from there - except for the increasing number who LIE about where they live and where they are posting from.

Why does it matter? Because these people are trying to build credibility here based on false information (location) in order to SELL to members here. Apparently that is accepted now by FL?
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  • Profile picture of the author ForumGuru
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

    As of today the "who's online" is limited to forum names - the IP info has been blocked.

    That tells me FL doesn't want to know - or want members to know - how many on this forum are claiming US and UK residence and posting from India, Ukraine, and similarly placed countries.

    Nothing wrong with those countries - or with marketers from there - except for the increasing number who LIE about where they live and where they are posting from.

    Why does it matter? Because these people are trying to build credibility here based on false information (location) in order to SELL to members here. Apparently that is accepted now by FL?
    I've never had access to IP info in the who's online area or anywhere else. Maybe you were not supposed to have it either? That's why I PMed you on the topic about 10 days ago....I did not have IP's visible in that area and I could not see straight IP's in the source code either.

    I had not yet PMed you back, and at this point, not much need too I'm guessing.

    That said, I am wondering how many other non-mods and admins can still see IPs, or if they put the kabosh on everyone's ability to see the IP's, including possibly former mods and the other members that could see them like you could.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I thought everyone had it - very useful though I can see why management might not see it that way.

    Either Allen or an 'old guard' mod PM'd me years ago (forget which) - "Kay -you can check that by going to...." so maybe it was added to my acct. Don't know.

    Don't get me wrong - I don't care where you live. I've purchased WSOs and products from people all over the world and quality was not location dependent.

    There is no requirement to list a 'location' here. If you list a false location it's a deliberate lie - why do that? Why would I trust you after that? What do you gain by doing that?
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    • Profile picture of the author ForumGuru
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      . If you list a false location it's a deliberate lie - why do that? Why would I trust you after that? What do you gain by doing that?
      Several of the veteran members on here tell lie after lie....it's the way they roll. That said, most forums do not allow "regular" members to see IP info because the information can be abused.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    So - you're saying I'm "irregular"?....I prefer to think of it as "special"
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  • Profile picture of the author ForumGuru
    Banned
    Obviously, quite a few members on here have been and/or are receiving special treatment. By regular, I meant you were not a mod or an admin.

    We are both special, Kay. Some of the others, not so much.
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Outside of my time as a mod, I never had access to IP information and cannot think of any other forum I belong to where it was any different.

    I don't really think that is information that should be publicly available to be honest. Too much room for abuse.
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    • Profile picture of the author lgibbon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post


      I don't really think that is information that should be publicly available to be honest. Too much room for abuse.
      There's even more room for abuse without it.
      Not only can people pretend to be somewhere they're not,
      They can also conceal the multiple accounts they use to talk
      to themselves in threads.
      Yet another win for the scam artists here.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
        Originally Posted by lgibbon View Post

        There's even more room for abuse without it.
        Not only can people pretend to be somewhere they're not,
        They can also conceal the multiple accounts they use to talk
        to themselves in threads.
        Yet another win for the scam artists here.
        Yeah, but not from mods. The mods can still see that. I am fine with mods having access to that data. I don't think it needs to be public for everyone.
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        • Profile picture of the author lgibbon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

          Yeah, but not from mods. The mods can still see that.
          Have you seen what they do these days?
          They can't even spot blatant spammers without someone reporting it.
          What chance is there of one of them actually looking at IP addresses?
          Almost none.
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          • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
            Originally Posted by lgibbon View Post

            Have you seen what they do these days?
            They can't even spot blatant spammers without someone reporting it.
            What chance is there of one of them actually looking at IP addresses?
            Almost none.
            Well, that's a different discussion that has been rehashed many times.

            I still think they are the only ones that should have access to the IP's of everyone.
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          • Profile picture of the author ForumGuru
            Banned
            Originally Posted by lgibbon View Post

            They can't even spot blatant spammers without someone reporting it.
            What chance is there of one of them actually looking at IP addresses?
            Almost none.
            True story.

            But the problem is it's a bigger risk to everyone on the forum if the entire world has access to IPs instead of just the forum staff.

            I have not participated on an a public forum that had visible IP's since the late 90's or early 00's when I was a part of a few photo-art communities that made IP's visible to members. The reason the IP's were visible to everyone is we wanted to make sure we knew every member of the semi-private art communities was who they said they were. Trolls, pirates, spammers and impostors were not welcome in our communities and the entire forum was the policing staff.

            Sorta like it is supposed to work here...but there we only kept people that cared. If it became apparent that a member didn't care about or abused the community they were learning from they were gone forever quite quickly.

            With a forum this large the potential for a lot of abuse is so massive I would much prefer to trust a few mods with the info instead of allowing every joe blow in the world to see who belongs to what IP so they can run around the net passing the information around and worse.

            We hope the mods protect our private info with vigor....we know regular members of this forum may not be as ethical with our IP info.

            I stand firmly on what I said originally in post #4...too much potential for abuse.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    by revealing a person's location in the forums
    I see it from both sides. With no requirement to list a location on this forum....listing a false location is a deliberate attempt to mislead other members.

    For the most part - those who were asking how to "fool" Paypal or Amazon or other online services....or advising members to ignore legal notices, etc....were the ones 'inventing' locations, too. No surprise, there, I guess.

    On my account, until a few months ago when I asked about it - I could also see any and all posts in the "test" section. Until I saw it mentioned in a thread, I thought everyone could see it.

    Speshul, that's me....not...
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I expect those things were holdovers from the past - membership in certain groups or some members having different access that hadn't been noticed (even by the member in my case).

    There were things "an owner" could do in a forum or with some members of a forum that can't be done by a big business. Times change.
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    Saving one dog will not change the world - but the world changes forever for that one dog
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    Sometimes I just want someone to hug me and say...
    "It's going to be OK - here's a horse and two million dollars."
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