Agoracom Blog

AGORACOM to Display Partial IP Addresses Of All Posts As Of April 26, 2010

Posted by AGORACOM at 12:45 PM on Friday, April 16th, 2010

Dear Members,

We are pleased to announce that AGORACOM will begin displaying a partial IP address of all posts made on and after Monday, April 26, 2010. The measure has been introduced in order to provide our community with greater transparency with respect to posts on AGORACOM.  As a result of this new measure, members will be able to view other members who may be using the same IP address with just one click – and report any suspicious activity via the AGORACOM violations system.

HOW IT WORKS – PRIVACY INTACT

We want to emphasize that only partial IP addresses will be displayed in order to maintain the privacy of our members.  Much like receipts printed out after making a purchase at a restaurant, only part of the IP address will be visible to the public in order to maintain the privacy of all members.

For example, an IP address is comprised of four sets of numbers and looks like this: 252.234.99.23. When displayed on AGORACOM, the first two sets of numbers will be concealed in order to keep your location/geographic information private.  As such, the IP address 252.234.99.23 will be publicly displayed as XXX.XXX.99.23 to insure your privacy.

HOW IT WORKS – TRANSPARENCY

Using the above IP as an example, members that are suspicious of a particular member’s posting will be able to click on the displayed IP address XXX.XXX.99.23.  The AGORACOM system, which keeps track of the full IP address in our back end, will automatically display any other members that share the full IP address.  A match does not necessarily mean a violation has occurred but it will allow members to quickly and easily compare the posts of members sharing an IP address for potential multiple alias violations.  If a member suspects a multiple alias violation, they can then easily report it via our “Report Violation” system.

We want to thank-you for continuing to make AGORACOM the best small-cap community on the web and look forward to any questions and comments you may have pertaining to our new IP address initiative.

Regards,
George, Paul et al

10 Responses to “AGORACOM to Display Partial IP Addresses Of All Posts As Of April 26, 2010”

  1. […] basher has been fined $425,000 payable to the company in question. Score one for the good guys! A major online investment forum and hub for precious metals has also recently addressed this issue by posting in the clear the […]

  2. […] April 16, we announced a plan to display partial IP addresses of all posts made on or after Monday April 26, 2010.  The measure was introduced in order to […]

  3. jacki79 says:

    A fine move George and Paul. Long overdue! Congratulations.

  4. jim trapasso says:

    ..i would like to see Hubleaders only have this statis of a hub leader only for one company.I see in some area plays where hub leaders that have hub statis on booth companys ,play one against the other even though they don”t have shares in both….

  5. DISCHINO says:

    Good move and I applaud you!

  6. Baldonnel says:

    Recommend that all “Hub Leaders”, who monitor and edit the various Boards, have their partial I.P. Addresses attached to their names for each Board.
    This will initiate a “Control Group”.

  7. el dreco says:

    George,
    Good idea – maybe it will set a precedent for other sites, where this sort of behaviour is, perhaps, more prevalent.
    el d

  8. richard osborne says:

    Sounds OK except there may be multiple members in a single household using the same computer, thus the same IP, but different individuals.

    The major problem will be IP’s that are dynamic and not static. Many servers because of numbers utilize changing IP’s and as a result the same individual may be posting under several IP’s.

    Seems to me if you have a data base, the control should be with you and any matches should be questioned.

    Just my thought.

  9. richard osborne says:

    Sounds OK except there may be multiple members in a single household using the same computer, thus the same IP, but different individuals.

    The major problem will be IP’s that are dynamic and not static. Many servers because of numbers utilize changing IP’s and as a result the same individual may be posting under several IP’s.

    Seems to me if you have a data base, the control should be with you and any matches should be questioned.

    Just my thought.

  10. emit says:

    Thank you Agora –

    Very ingenious.

    emit…