Topic: Anonymising proxies and Tor exit nodes

[Orac]

Included in the Registration agreement are the following words:-

. . . . . . you agree not to use any form of proxy or spoofed IP address.

One of the "unique selling points" of FiftyPlusForum is that what is posted on FiftyPlus, stays on FiftyPlus . . . . we're a private forum. To that end we take security seriously and we note a recent furoré over the use of 'sock puppets' (second identities) on another forum. Here, we don't allow them unless there's a valid reason for their use and IP addresses are one of the tools at our disposal for identifying the unauthorised use of a sock puppet. We see no valid reason why an honest member should need to hide their IP address anyway.

In view of the above and the recent increase in the number of membership applications by spammers, we are now being more pro-active as far as access to FiftyPlusForum is concerned and, rather than relying solely on members adhering to the Registration agreement, have disabled access via known anonymising proxy and Tor exit node IP addresses.

Should a member or prospective member try to access our forum in such a manner, they will receive a message saying they are banned and why. Obviously they are not banned, it's just that their method of access is blocked. It's a generic message and the explanation displayed with it advises them to access the forum using a conventional IP address.

We hope this reassures members that we continue to take their security seriously.