A question for Les and Mike

A

Anonymous

Guest
From: Anonymous


Hi Guys,

Given that you both have the ability delete posts and act as defacto moderators of this forum, can you determine who are the author(s) of anonymous post(s)? :)
 
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Reply: 1
From: Mike .


Hello Anon,

I'm a moderator of two conferences only within this WebBoard: Apprentice Millionaire Guide and Property Investor Archive. I believe Les is moderator only of Caveat Emptor. Neither of us moderate the Property Investor Forum conference which you posted to.

The following quote describes how a moderator can exercise editorial control of posts:

(Quote)
Verifying New Messages

Conferences where "Automatically verify new posts" is turned off require a conference moderator (or board manager or WebBoard administrator) to approve any new message before it will be visible to conference participants. This allows the moderators to monitor, or exercise editorial control over what messages are posted in a conference.

A moderator can verify, add, delete, and edit messages in a conference. Users in conferences requiring message verification can post messages (both to new and existing topics), but the moderator decides whether to post the message, discuss the matter with the user personally, or request that the user rephrase the message.

Once the moderator approves the message, it appears in the conference and is available to other conference users.

Users post messages to conferences requiring verification just as they would to any public or private conference. However, the moderator must first verify messages before they appear to other users.

Mike again: I believe none of the conferences actually have "Automatically verify new posts" turned off. However, we can still delete offending posts after they have been posted. If the poster is anonymous we cannot send a reply e-mail to that person.

Now to your specific question: "can you determine who are the author(s) of anonymous post(s)? :)"

I personally can't but the WebBoard administrator probably can. Here is a quote I found on the net concerning e-mails which probably applies to postings:

(Quote)
Email services like Hotmail, YahooMail and other free web based email services capture and send the following information about you with the email:

Your IP Address : 63.34.228.78
Your ISP Log ID : 1Cust78.tnt9.syd2.da.uu.net
Your Country of Origin : en-us
Your ISP Address : 1Cust78.tnt9.syd2.da.uu.net
Your Proxy Address :
Your Computer Browser Information : Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows 95)
Your Computer Operating System Information : Win95
Your Browser Session ID : 791123489

Here is another quote from an actual forum administrator on another forum"

(Quote)
C'mon you guys, this is just lame. I had to delete 3-4 accounts due to hacking attempts just today [cough]super33[/cough]

I have actually managed to log IPs from these bogus accounts and have gotten personal information on many of these "anonymous" type registrations. I would be more than willing to share this info with your isp and the authorities if necessary.

Mike again: I think it's clear that Ian Somers, as the WebBoard Administrator, could block an IP address from posting on the forum. If he were to match the anonymous IP address with the IP address of current account users he would know their identity.

For those who may want to send anonymous e-mails, the following quote may be of interest:

(Quote)
An anonymous re-mailer is a program that runs on a computer somewhere on the Internet. When you send mail to the re-mailer address, the re-mailer takes your name and your address off of the mail message and forwards it to its next destination. The recipient gets mail that has no evidence of where it originally came from, at least not in the headers. You might give away your secret identity in the body of the message, but that would be the sender's own fault.

Anonymous re-mailers can be "chained" so that a message is passed on from one anonymous re-mailer to another, in two or more separate anonymous "hops" as a way of making physical tracing or monitoring increasingly difficult.


Regards, Mike

PS May I express my profound sadness and deep sympathy over the events that took place in New York overnight. It was an act of hatred on an unimaginable scale.
 
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Reply: 1.1
From: Paul Zagoridis


Thanks for that info Mike .

I think you'd find that Ian can matchup Anonymous posts from registered users to their user names quite easily.

The point really is that Somersoft allows registered users to be as Anonymous as they please.

My preference is for people to make up a handle and post under that handle, thereby reserving Anonymous for those "Don't ask don't sue" answers sometimes required. Or similarly for specific questions requiring significant disclosure of personal financial information.

That solution stops threads with Anon users arguing with Anon users. Plus I'd rather have "Mr Hanky" post an opinion than Anonymous. I know the day is coming shortly where I just wont read posts from Anonymous.

This forum works through the open sharing of information and ideas leading to a unique community on the Internet. Eventually IMHO anon posts will remove most of that sense of community, and then I'll stop dropping in.

I'd much rather hang out with See Change, Sim, The_Wife, GCC, P Plate, Dave :), and other people who have a unique identity, even when I don't know their names.

Dreamspinner
Oz Film Biz is at
http://www.healey.com.au/~paulz
 
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Reply: 1.1.1
From: Duncan M


>anonymously yours, Sly Dog

Why not create a user called "Sly Dog" at least that way, you can recieve responses and when there's two anon posters posting in the same thread we can tell their responses apart..

Dunc
 
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Reply: 1.1.1.1
From: Paul Zagoridis


Good on you Sly Dog!

Les and Mike . should be able to tell you how to hide your email address as well.

Again I have no probs with Anonymity - I quite like it actually (but son't trust my ability to keep my own, hence no anon posts). It's homogenous Anon's that make me twitch ;-)

Dreamspinner
Oz Film Biz is at
http://www.healey.com.au/~paulz
 
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Reply: 1.1.1.1.1
From: Mike .


This is a test to see if Hide Email when turned off allows my email address to be seen.


Hide Email

Check No to hide your email address from other users. The board manager and site administrator will still be able to see your email address. Mailing lists and email notification will still work.
 
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Reply: 1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Mike .


Well that test worked. Sly, did you save your changes after selecting Hide Email On?

Now I'll turn Hide Email back on. My email address should not appear with this post.

There you go...works perfectly. I saved the changes both times.

Hang on! I just noticed that after turning Hide Email on again my email address which was displayed a moment ago in the previous post (No 8) has disappeared again. So obviously, it is not saved with the post.
 
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Reply: 1.1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Mike .


Hi Sly,

Hide Email and Save Password works for me and I'm running WIN95 with IE4. Sounds like a platform or browser problem.

Time to call in Ghostbusters or:

Ian Somers: [email protected]

or:

Admin, WebBoard: [email protected]

Regards, Mike
 
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Reply: 1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Paul Zagoridis


Hey

Sly Dog in the Sig works for now. Congrats and glad to meet you.

The Hide email flag affects all your posts, as is the email address field. I just updated my email address and ALL my past posts show my current email address. Neat huh?

Hopefully the Anons will not overwhelm this forum to the point were we start ignoring all posts from Anonymous. When that happens create a yahoo or hotmail account that you never check and post under that.

I LOVE this weboard software! Especially after trying to use ABC's "web chat" to discuss TV or radio stories. It's like a room full of blind people shouting at each other.

Paul Zag
Dreamspinner
Oz Film Biz is at
http://www.healey.com.au/~paulz
 
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Reply: 1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1
From: Sim' Hampel


Ahh the wonders of relational databases !

sim.gif
 
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