Disabled comments based on IP?

[John Praemins]

Hi everyone,

Is it possible for a webmaster to disable comments on a website, by storing the
IP address (or some variant thereof in case of dynamic IP ranges) of a specific
user? In other words, block IP-specific users?

The following page belongs to a Greek web-newspaper, and although I used to be
able to post without problems, since two days ago, the "submit" and "clear"
buttons have been lately disabled.

http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/?aid=143337

I just peeked a bit under the source of the page and the two blue buttons below
the user comments (sumbit/clear) seem to point only to
http://www.protothema.gr/#

which does nothing but call the front page of the website, instead of activating
a js for sending the comments in. Before that, the first button activated a
short dialog "Your comments have been submitted and are awaiting authorization".

Maybe a problem with javascript?

PS: The website is in Greek and the encoding is UTF-8.

Thanks,

John

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

Is it possible for a webmaster to disable comments on a website, by
storing the IP address (or some variant thereof in case of dynamic IP
ranges) of a specific user? In other words, block IP-specific users?
Yes.

http://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/?aid=143337

I just peeked a bit under the source of the page and the two blue
buttons below the user comments (sumbit/clear) seem to point only to
http://www.protothema.gr/#

The page has, however, a click event handler set (via JavaScript, not
HTML attribute) for the element.

It can be a major effort to try to analyze how the page works, and you
would no even (directly)see what happens server-side.

I suggest that you contact the site admin and ask them about the issue.

 

[John Praemins]

Jukka K. Korpela scrieb:

The page has, however, a click event handler set (via JavaScript, not
HTML attribute) for the element.

It can be a major effort to try to analyze how the page works, and you
would no even (directly)see what happens server-side.

Thanks to both.

I suggest that you contact the site admin and ask them about the
issue.

I might. Doesn't this kind of blocking though sound like censorship and/or
discrimination, particularly for a news-source?

This website has also censored some of my comments directly, after submission. I
can understand direct censorship related to abusive or demeaning language, but
specific IP-blocking looks like more than a little fishy to me.

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Sun, 4 Mar 2012 20:22:55 +0200, "John Praemins"

[snip]

This website has also censored some of my comments directly, after submission. I

Their Website, their rules.

can understand direct censorship related to abusive or demeaning language, but
specific IP-blocking looks like more than a little fishy to me.

It gets around you simply creating a new login and using that.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

 

[Jukka K. Korpela]

It gets around you simply creating a new login and using that.

No, to get around IP-blocking you need a different IP. Switching to a
new computer may not help if the connection is seen from the outside as
coming from the same IP.

 

[Beauregard T. Shagnasty]

can understand direct censorship related to abusive or demeaning
language, but specific IP-blocking looks like more than a little fishy
to me.

It gets around you simply creating a new login and using that.

No, to get around IP-blocking you need a different IP. Switching to a
new computer may not help if the connection is seen from the outside as
coming from the same IP.

Mr Praemins said that IP blocking looks fishy. Mr Wirchenko replied that
IP blocking prevents user from creating a new login account. I'm sure Mr
Wirchenko knows that a new login account would use the visitor's same IP
address...

Sounds to me as if Mr Praemins needs to contact the site's webmaster or
owner and get a direct answer.

I have one site where an annoying pest abuses the Contact Us form, so
I've added code to send both his IP address and his (small) ISP direct to
the 404 page whenever he accesses the contact form. He's never figured it
out.

 

[Gene Wirchenko]

John Praemins wrote:
can understand direct censorship related to abusive or demeaning
language, but specific IP-blocking looks like more than a little fishy
to me.

It gets around you simply creating a new login and using that.

No, to get around IP-blocking you need a different IP. Switching to a
new computer may not help if the connection is seen from the outside as
coming from the same IP.

Mr Praemins said that IP blocking looks fishy. Mr Wirchenko replied that
IP blocking prevents user from creating a new login account. I'm sure Mr
Wirchenko knows that a new login account would use the visitor's same IP
address...

I do, yes.

Sounds to me as if Mr Praemins needs to contact the site's webmaster or
owner and get a direct answer.
Agreed.

I have one site where an annoying pest abuses the Contact Us form, so
I've added code to send both his IP address and his (small) ISP direct to
the 404 page whenever he accesses the contact form. He's never figured it
out.

Good. IP address filtering is not a total solution, but it can
help.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko