IP logging

[markf]

Based on the response we received to our release notes to lj_releases, we have removed the recent change which displayed the country & city information of commenters when IP logging is enabled. We want to note, however, that comment IP logging has been a feature on LiveJournal for a very long time, and that the city & country information has always been

Comments

[dontdoovertime]

In order for moderators to-- you know-- moderate their own communities, I voted that yes, they should continue to have the ability to log the IP addresses of commenters. The problem-- as far as I could tell (I'm not wise or ingenius enough to speak for the collective)-- with the "feature" you guys implemented and quickly rolled back was it showed information that was unnecessarily private. Everyone knew that your general location could be found by tracing your IP address, but it's a very different concept. And there were certainly a fair number of people who said they frankly didn't want to know the names of these towns-- they didn't want to know who was near to them! They preferred having the IP numbers for 'in case' situations, but the rest just wasn't doing it for them.

You can't take this feature away without vastly changing the amount of control moderators have over their communities and in a way that doesn't really benefit anyone. Nobody was complaining (adamantly, afaik) about IP addresses before you were blatantly showing where they were connected to. If people are agitated now, it's because that policy stirred the pot. /2 slightly rusty cents

[bronzed]

You said this so much better than I would have, so I will say I agree with you 100%. But I also wonder what the logic is moving from showing highly specific location info and removing IP logging altogether. Why does it have to be all or nothing, why cant it just go back to how it was pre-r80? It wasnt broken thus didnt need fixing, this seems like a slightly over-reactive backpedal. But, at least they asked this time!

[dontdoovertime]

True that. I'd rather be asked something for caution's sake than not at all.

[theweaselking]

The problem [...] with the "feature" you guys implemented and quickly rolled back was it showed information that was unnecessarily private.

Uh, yeah, no. You've been broadcasting your location with every comment for a decade. The fact that you didn't understand this doesn't change it.

There has been *zero* change to your privacy and *zero* change to the information you've been sending to the people whose journals you've commented on. The only difference is that now Livejournal's eliminated the two-second process required to translate that information from IP to English.

[dontdoovertime]

I'm not sure what part of this is hard for you (or anyone of a similar position) to understand. It bothers people to see the names of their town and/or state and/or country openly displayed. It is an entirely different feeling than numbers that may mean the same thing but do not openly display it. There have been so many similes and metaphors made about the difference between an IP address made of numbers and a location's name that I'm not going to reiterate it for you. If you still don't get it, that's fine, but remember that your comfort zone =/= mine or anyone else's. So before you start saying 'LOL YOU MUST NOT KNOW WHAT AN IP IS,' maybe just... don't type. You know. That would be my suggestion.

We're clearly not going to agree on this matter, so I don't want to argue it further and I think I can reserve the right to ignore any 'but it's the same thiiiiiing' whining when it clearly isn't (or this issue wouldn't have come up). It makes a big difference to a lot of people. It doesn't to you. That's cool, but it doesn't auto-make people who disagree with you an idiot just like I don't think you're a punk for coming into this thread just to assume what I do or do not know. You don't know my life or experiences or comfort level and I don't know yours.