I enjoy the gag of signing on as Alan as much as anyone, but the bosses sent me this note. I include it to advise all my loyal and kind readers:
"We don't allow people to post under multiple names from the same IP address. So you may want to mention that if people continue posting under the same IP address — either impersonating others or doing it to further an internet fight — that their IP will be banned forever."
I don't make the rules. I just follow 'em.
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Pity it had to come to this. Some of you had so much fun at others expense.
I've enjoyed the gag of occasionally signing on as Pat McManamon, Akron Beacon Journal Columnist. I mean, who doesn't enjoy the hilarity of watching somebody read what they think is a real newspaper column about the Akron Zips? You'd have to be made of stone.
As the administrator of three discussion forums, myself, I would be interested to know how your bosses will handle people who IP "spoof", and keep coming back. It is an age old challenge for administrators.
So where can i go if they ban ALAN?????? I need my daily laugh fix ps TP of The PD formerly of the ABJ got online and responded to some major jerks the other day after one of his great forums….ps ps Pat you have filled his role very nicely keep it up some people do like a strong opinion ….Till next time !!!!!!GO CAVS GO STeelers!!!! keep trying lil clowns i might come back some day
In my professional opinion (technology guy), this is really, really stupid. And by stupid, I mean "totally ineffective."
There are two kinds of IP addresses– static (never changes– it is assigned to you by your ISP in perpetuity) and dynamic (changes every time you restart your modem).
If you're posting from work, and you work for a large company– or it's a small company, but they do business with a government agency (which require static IP addresses, so the government knows who is connecting every time)– the IP address is probably static.
But if you're working in a small office, and your ISP is Time-Warner, Cox, AT&T, Verizon, Windsteam, etc… it's probably dynamic. They pay to reserve a pool of addresses and, every time you turn your modem on, they give you the lowest available address.
Which means, all you have to do to change your IP address is turn your modem off, wait 30-60 seconds and then turn it back on again. When it makes a new connection, you have a new IP address.
Why am I revealing this super-secret method of defeating the B-J's security? Because anyone who works with computers knows it. Because anyone who wants access to a web site that only lets you log in for a limited amount of time each day knows it. Because people who've had problems with the
Because it probably won't prevent anything– the spoof guys will probably know this and start right in– so thinking that it will is just going to delay an effective security policy. So maybe the tech people at the B-J could implement something that works– registration where you have to select a user name (which can only be assigned to one person) and password, supply a valid e-mail address and receive a registration e-mail, which you then have to activate.
This doesn't mean you won't have "alan p" and "alan" and myriad other user names designed to confuse unsuspecting users. But it will require a little more work. And, unlike dynamic IP addresses, it's harder to change e-mail addresses.
Let's talk about the Tribe hiring Manning Acta…boo.