I can see there is some concern lately over all of this and understand where you are going. There are some blog posts recently:
http://www.boonex.com/unity/blog/entry/Time_to_clean_up_
and
http://www.boonex.com/unity/blog/entry/IP_check_for_posts

But honestly I do believe Boonex does not have the time or resources for something like this, nor would most companies.

The internet is great, but with all the nice technology we get spammers, exploits, cheaters, multi-accounts, you name it. You can delete them, suspend them, or due away with them, and they just pop right back up if they so desire. Many times it's not even worth the effort, because they come right back if they really want to.

The post about the ip check really does not do any good at all. Ip check is probably the worst. If there are any dial up users out there anymore their ip's change everytime they connect to the internet, so you can't really single them out. Even if you have dsl, cable, satellite, or other broadband, unless you purchase a static ip your ip is going to change at some point. When that happens you are free once again to do whatever. You can also force your modem to get a new ip or use an almost unlimited number of online resources to get a new ip, so this is pretty much out of the question. Unless someone from Boonex wants to spend all day long looking at logs and logins to see if someone is up to something in terms of ips, I really don't think this would be productive or result in much success for points or giping a bit. What if someone is at a friends, neighbor, relative with different internet company and ip? How about college or a library? Maybe a cell phone?

If anything it would consume more time, cost money to pay someone, and really wouldn't do anything. Even so some people hire members to do work for them, and they log into there unity account to aquire licenses and this would be login from the same ip to 2 different accounts but in my opinion legit work and help.

Ip banning used to be popular, but really not as much anymore. You really need to keep up on it if you are banning ip's on your site. Even the new ip banning in d7 alpha. Because you can ban someone's ip and they can just change it and be back like nothing happened. If you don't keep up on it you will never know. If you have a small site you could probably follow it, but if you have 1000's of members you aren't going to know one login from another after while.

The points system is really a joke anyway. They don't mean squat, who really cares how many points you have. I used to follow them, but it's abused and I really don't care if you have +100 or 1. If you provide help, I don't care how many points you have.

So odd ball companies flag an account for logins from another ip, but they get a number of legitament complaints in the process.

I think you have a good thought, but it's pretty difficult to regulate or control this.

While i agree to a point with gameutopia, (it is difficult to control this if somebody is determined) i do believe that you have to make an attempt to try though, most sites try at least, this is why its in some sites Terms Of Membership. We do get spammers i agree, hard to stop them sometimes, but when you do get a spammer or a troll, you dont just sit there and say "nevermind, oh dear, just ignore them" all sites get rid of them, its time consuming and tedious but thats all part of the game of running a site.

This site really does need a dedicated site manager who's only responsibility is the running of the site and nothing else.

regards

Tyke

"Dolphin was downloaded 571 times in the last 24 hours."

HernanL are you volunteering to man the phone lines?

I dont think screening is a good idea before you can use the software,or use the support site either. I think its really only about keeping on top of the activities of members while users are here. Sammie's website (which is what you mentioned) is a little bit different with the nature of the site and to keep it safe from men joining. There really isnt a need for that level of control here though, its more about people managment while they are here rather than vetting who can use this site before hand. You have to show a level of trust i feel to new users, and vetting is really only shifting responsibility for people who should be able to control the live site anyway.

Regards

Tyke

guys, there is technology that can do phone verification which is automated, i have that on my hosting site, to avoid fraud. the phone number is entered as part of the sign up, the automated script dials that number and tells you a confirmation number, you enter that confirmation number in as part of the login process.

maxmind is who i think does that. but then again, i think the easiest way to deal with these accounts is to prune after 30 days, send a friendly reminder after 25 days, and if there are no license number, free or otherwise, then prune the account. this can be automated, doesnt even involve human interaction.

as for the IP, game is correct, that is fruitless, all of us have heard of proxies, also, logging in from open wireless connections, or air cards, there is really no way to stop this sort of entry, if you choose to ban a block of IP's then you could essentially block authentic customers.

you could even go as far as part of the registration, to require a license number be activated within 10 days. now here is the gig on that, this can be traced if somebody decided to try to outwit this, boonex could deny those no-ip domains, as well as limit the number of subdomains and if a domain (subdomain) is found to be in violation, they would remain in the sandbox for 90 days.

there are several things that could be done, its a pity that we would even need to be having this discussion, as you would expect all who join on here to be of a mature age and not require the necessity to be treated like a child. unfortunately for us and boonex, that is not the case, and measures need to be taken to thwart this behavior.


Regards,
DosDawg
Moderator Ad Litem

You could obviously do SMS verification. No staff needed.

Sorry but your solutions would cost astronomically..

There is a simple solution tough.. IP tracking.. when you try to sign up an IP checking should be made to see if there is already a user with that IP.. This is the only way..

Better than IP tracking on sign up - the simple removal of anonymous "thumb up/thumb down" but keeping the comment and "positive/negative/neutral" voting will be the perfect solution.. What do you say boonex?
Can you teach your members be more responsible and on topic/objective?

I havent had a lan line for a few years now...

dosdawg said "...its a pity that we would even need to be having this discussion, as you would expect all who join on here to be of a mature age and not require the necessity to be treated like a child..."

I totally agree.

Just delete the offenders - there is a policy in effect here - why not enforce it? Extra mods have been employed, they know who the offenders are, as it is plain to see. You break the rules - you pay - simple

I must admit, I do find it funny the way that these users carry on, getting so angry, feeling the need to flame others, hijacking threads etc etc...

FFS it's a tech-geek blog site. What are these people even thinking in acting this way? I come to a place like this expecting people to be chatting about geeky stuff like web2 / ajax / whatever the buzz topic of the moment is.

Instead we get handbags at 50 paces.

Show no mercy - that's what I say.

D.E.L.E.T.E.

:D