I’m wondering whether this community supports security and privacy.
Whenever I create an account while connected to a VPN, it gets put on hold indefinitely. Despite the long list of admins and moderators, no one seems to follow up, even though the automated message indicates they will.
This is the third time I’ve tried to create an account here and run into the same issue. Is this really necessary? It feels like this policy may be pushing away legitimate users. I’m left choosing between turning off my VPN to participate or not participating at all, which seems like an odd trade-off for a forum.
I understand that spam is a concern, but this approach does not seem very effective, especially without any actual follow-up. At this point, the only thing being filtered out consistently is me.
For context, I created this account while using a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi. It shouldn’t be this difficult just to join a forum.
I’ve now finished my coffee, which was easier than finishing this signup process. I’ll try again in a week to see if anything changes.
I’m glad you finally made it here. I wasn’t the mod who ultimately gave the tick, but clearly someone did (I’ve only just started my day)
You should hopefully not encounter those VPN issues again, it’s just a part of the sign-up. It’s not just VPN either, Discourse may flag other suspicious indicators too, and while there is unfortunately a false-positive occasionally, it does also help weed out bad actors. A delayed well-meaning post, is perhaps better than un-hindered “casino” spam?
I too, would be using a VPN in a cafe. Enjoy the coffee!
VPN at the home I am living at right now is at router level so I can’t turn it off.
I briefly turned off my software VPN on my laptop at the coffee shop just so I can quickly sign up again and make this post. Luckily no ban this time lol.
To be frank, I participate in a few other discourse forums as well but so far no bans on those so this is anecdotal for me. I thought perhaps the security sensitivity in this forum is cranked up high.
hey good to have you with us (and not in a “I’m not stuck in here with you, you’re stuck in here with ME.!!” kind of way )
I still have warm memories of the late 90’s and irc channels where often you’d get the same kind of automated bans and kicks based on spurious information, great to see that’s alive and well with the bots now However long your history, - enjoy the journey! I still can’t believe how far Linux has come in the last thirty years, here’s to many more decades!
I am not the correct person to tag here.
But i do not think we do any special settings on discourse to block VPN, but i remember that people have such issue, you can usually login over VPN but seems it does not work for the user creation process.
When suspended immediately, you cannot message any admins or mods. I tried to do this and it was just not possible. Looking back, that was the most frustrating part because you have literally no options at that point. If there were any changes to make, this would be the one. It would have allowed me to message one of you and voice my issue without needing to create additional accounts.
I too had the same problem. Thanks to the suggestions in this thread the issue was resolved.
Thank you for the quick resolution.
Interestingly, if email address is any indication, the mod who resolved the issue for me uses the same email and VPN service as I do.
I completely understand and sympathize with The Powers That Be, given the madhouse behind the scenes Teh Interwebz has become. (It’s part of why I sold my web hosting service in 2008. I thought it was bad back then.) Still, the assumption that every VPN user is a spammer or some other kind of creep is an invalid one.
You already set up an account a year ago under another username, and you created a third account, which is still silenced.
That is the real reason why your account initially was silenced by the system.
Why do you need so many accounts?
(I’ve only just started my day)
)
However long your history, - enjoy the journey! I still can’t believe how far Linux has come in the last thirty years, here’s to many more decades!
