IDEA: How to block a member which return to the group support rooms from multiple account
Hello
All the MOD of 7cups face a similar kind of issue when they moderate at group support rooms. The issue is whenever we block any meber for various reason the member return to the site from multiple account. So here I am sharing a little idea about how to block a member .
A memver is return in the site from multiple user account that mean for diffrent member accounts they are using VPN (Virtual Private Network)
It is easy to block the members private IP address to blocl them form site completely. but due to VPN it is impossible. Here I am sharing a good idea about How to block VPN.
VPNs are renting servers or cloud instances from data centers. So its not that complicated to differentiate their IP range.
Following solutions might be the simplest to implement on a website:
1. Using Maxmind anonymous IP database: GeoIP2 Anonymous IP Database - Maxmind is one of the biggest IP address database. So they know the owner of each IP address. When a user comes to the website, we can use Maxmind API to check if that IP belongs to a data center / VPN. If it then blocks the users' access.
2. Using a web firewall that can block data center IPs without the traffic reaching the web server. ie; http://Incapsula.com or Cloudflare - The Web Performance & Security Company | Cloudflare - Once 7cups implement these web firewalls to 7cups website, then easily we can monitor the traffic before reaching to 7cups web servers and block data center IP addresses.
original thread: https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-block-a-VPN-connection-on-my-site
tagging:
@7cupscommunity @Laura @Heather225 @Lorraine @BrillianTurtle89 @KindSoul10 @MonBon @Jill7cups
@debojyoti012
nice job! I keep flagging all day, removing. but they come back just in the way you mentioned. Some days it ends up just being a battle of wills or how much time someone can devote to it. This would be great!
@debojyoti012
Thank you for your feedback! You have provided suggestions on managing users who evade bans by creating multiple accounts.
@7CupsCommunity
yes but really dont know wheather it is helpful or not
@debojyoti012
I think everything you said was helpful and the way you went about it was so very helpful! I think to myself so many times that if you aren't part of the solution, then you are just part of the problem. Many times we have forum posts that complain about things but offer no ideas for resolution. I appreciate your brilliance, I appreciate you noticing there was a problem, and I appreciate you trying to reach for a solution! Hey, and trust.....I'm just little ole' me, I am nobody around here. I'm just a listener that thinks you deserve a big ole' pat on the back for that one! I imagine 7 cups will take everything into account and many times there may be things that we don't understand because we, ourselves don't put our hands on the "machinery" day in and day out. There could be reasons as to why it wouldn't or couldn't work, and one of those could come down to cost effectiveness. Who knows? I'm sure 7 cups will be passing the information along to the engineering team for consideration. As for today, and as for me, again, nice job, you rock!
@PhoenixArisen
thank you for your support
@debojyoti012 you did hard work on researching. :) Thanks for sharing your findings!
@debojyoti012 It may interest you to know that 7 Cups used Incapsula until recently. We occasionally used to see weird Incapsula error messages when things went wrong. Now 7 Cups seems to be hosted by Amazon.
The big problem with blocking VPNs is that some people have legitimate reasons to use them, and those people would be blocked too. This is especially true for a site like 7 Cups where people sometimes need to discuss issues that they want to keep very private.
Also, VPNs are not the only way people can change their IP address. The easiest way is to choose a different wifi hotspot, which might mean walking down the street in some places, but not even that in other places. Where I'm sitting now I can change my IP address whenever I like simply by logging in to my router and telling it to get a new one.
7 Cups is really here to help people, and instead of finding better ways to block members I feel sure we should be finding better ways to accept members. But I know it is sometimes very difficult in the chatrooms. That's the reason I don't use them.
Charlie
Thanks for the suggestions. :)
The problem is so far less a technical, instead more a moral one. Question is: an IP address doesn't identify a person or a client machine. With NAT there can be more than 1 computer, client or person behind a specific IP address. Is it legitimate to ban a range of IPs and ban innocent other clients? Is it legitimate to strip a privacy safety measure on an anonymous site that can't take full responsibility for users anonymity and privacy? (There are so many ways to let users leak their IP address).
Instead of blocking security measures people should be encouraged to keep their identity safe.
@debojyoti012 This really needs to be an option. I once got into a conflict with someone here on the forum and the user messaged me on their listener account. This is not okay and even though I wrote to 7cups I've never heard back (and I did see that same member on the forums so I'm not even sure if anything was done).
@ReadBooksDrinkTea. was the listener being abusive to you or did they just want to discuss the issue privately with you ? 7cups encourages people to resolve personal conflicts privately whenever possible and not do it in the public forums if a member has a listener account thats how it can be resolved privately so unless the listener messaged you and was being abusive and you sent screenshots of the lister being abusive i dont think anything wouldve been done other than the listener being told that tney did the rignt thing by doing that and encouraging them to continue doing it
@jennysunrise8
Users are supposed to keep their accounts separate, so it wouldn't have been appropriate for that listener to message another user about something that had happened on their member account.
@ReadBooksDrinkTea
That being said, unless they had been doing other things that were inappropriate as well, it is unlikely it would have resulted in their account being shut down based on the current points system, so that is my guess as to why you still saw them around.
@MonBon oh i forgot about that part keeping member and listener accounts separate well i guess for that reason the listener would get in trouble for making it known what his listener account name is to someone ive always thought as long as there are forums that involves socializing beyond just basic question and answer support that members should be able to private message eachother to work things out and so members who do get in a conflict in the forum will have to keep it public (hopefully people who are on their member accounts and cannot private message wont get in trouble for doing that it wouldnt make sense to contain member conflicts to the forum and at the same time make a rule against member conflicts in the forum) but i think members having a way to message privately just for the purpose of resolving disputes privately (maybe this could be something that could be temporarily enabled on member accounts by admin if the members are seen having a conflict in the forum)
@jennysunrise8
Ideally members won't participate in conflict and instead use conflict resolution skills. I know that at this time admins don't have the ability to enable messaging between members, but you are welcome to submit it to the suggestion box to see if it is something they are willing and able to implement.
