Stop Persecution of VPN Users

[Ultrabenosaurus]

Can you please stop treating VPN users like they're criminals, please?

There are many valid, important uses for VPNs such as accessing devices at home when away, maintaining privacy from ISPs and governments, adding security to your connection on public wifi or mobile data, avoiding monitoring from abusive partners or family, etc. etc.

More and more governments and law enforcement agencies around the world are covertly stalking law-abiding citizens online, more and more companies are harvesting and selling or abusing user data. VPNs aren't criminal tools, they're quickly becoming a fundamental necessity for using the Internet.

Not only does Scribble Hub stop me leaving star ratings and reviews when I'm on a VPN, I can't even search the forums to see if this has been discussed before because the search system specifically ignores "vpn". I'm not even joking, it shows this error:

The following words were not included in your search because they are too short, too long, or too common: vpn

You have to be logged in to leave a rating or review in the first place. If I'm logged in, what does it matter if I'm on a VPN? It's not like I can leave one review, switch the VPN endpoint, and leave another review on the same series, all while logged into the same account. Surely the website isn't that easy to trick?

 

[Agentt]

Well, while you are absolutely correct, you must understand how easy VPN would make for some dishonest authors to just spam their stories with 5 stars to ensure it stays at top of ratings. It is also to prevent trolling.

 

[Ultrabenosaurus]

Well, while you are absolutely correct, you must understand how easy VPN would make for some dishonest authors to just spam their stories with 5 stars to ensure it stays at top of ratings. It is also to prevent trolling.

No they can't, you have to be logged in to rate or review a series. It doesn't matter how many times you switch your VPN endpoint, the only way to do what you say is to have dozens or hundreds of separate accounts, and blocking all VPN users is not a good or accurate method to detect or prevent people using multiple accounts.

 

[Zirrboy]

Can you please stop treating VPN users like they're criminals, please?

Criminal scum!

Not only does Scribble Hub stop me leaving star ratings and reviews when I'm on a VPN,

Did you add it to your reading list?
And even if you did, this seems more likely to be a bug. I certainly can rate through a VPN

when I'm on a VPN, I can't even search the forums to see if this has been discussed before because the search system specifically ignores "vpn". I'm not even joking, it shows this error:

Try any other three letter word. It says "too short" in the error message, doesn't it?

 

[Ultrabenosaurus]

Criminal scum!

Did you add it to your reading list?
And even if you did, this seems more likely to be a bug. I certainly can rate through a VPN

Yes, and I've bookmarked my place several chapters into the story before my first attempt at rating and reviewing the series. I click "write a review" and the form appears, then click my desired star rating and the stars vanish to reveal the message "VPN detected".

Try any other three letter word

Fair, but also incredibly unhelpful. Some specific terms should be excluded from a generic word-length limitation. Terms like con (scam), pro (professional), doc (doctor), vpn (VPN), and low (not high) are all commonly used and could be important keywords when searching for things. Like if a series has "doc" in the title or only refers to a character as "doc" then searching for "doctor" to find related posts on the forum isn't helpful.

 

[Zirrboy]

Yes, and I've bookmarked my place several chapters into the story before my first attempt at rating and reviewing the series. I click "write a review" and the form appears, then click my desired star rating and the stars vanish to reveal the message "VPN detected".

Mine is treated the same as without. I can't seem to replicate anything you mention.

Fair, but also incredibly unhelpful. Some specific terms should be excluded from a generic word-length limitation. Terms like con (scam), pro (professional), doc (doctor), vpn (VPN), and low (not high) are all commonly used and could be important keywords when searching for things. Like if a series has "doc" in the title then searching for "doctor" to find related posts on the forum isn't helpful.

The forum is third party software, complain with XenoForo.