Hello.
Before you ask, I am familiar with the issues that supposedly plague the site every time the blocks to certain IP addresses are withdrawn. However, I am making this post to ask what exactly those are that make the site so unusable?
I’ve been on music forums my whole life, most of them with similar amounts of traffic but even less security, and the moderators of those sites have never blocked VPNs or even lamented about the spam they might receive from such bots. I’m wondering what these bots are doing that necessitates blocking VPNs to such an extent that the website is unusable for those in certain countries or VPN users, which often overlap.
I’m not angry about this, just very frustrated because I am a consistent user who simply prioritizes my own security. I understand RYM is in the same place as I am in this regard, but I am simply asking what these “attacks” are that supposedly destroy the site each time a VPN firewall comes down. I guess it’s just strange to me that RYM would be a target for bots, but I’ve been surprised before.
Thanks.
Please see the wiki for more information why this is:
https://www.reddit.com/r/rateyourmusic/wiki/index/#wiki_can_i_browse_rym_using_a_vpn.3F
There are many abusive actions that bots can take against RYM if VPN ranges are unblocked, including scraping a large number of pages/sending an overwhelming number of requests to the site.
RYM would like to allow authenticated VPN usage in the future.
Thank you. Again, I understand that you guys would probably like to use VPNs on your own site if possible, but the spam thing yada yada yada. I think all of us are just tired of running into a wall (pun intended) repeatedly and want to see a change. A part of me is considering becoming a contributor, but it would have to be on the basis that my VPN be unblocked or something of that sort.
Again, I know that’s wishful thinking. I just hope to see some positive change in the future and would be happy to contribute if possible.
There is no advantage that RYM gains from not allowing legitimate users to access the site just because they are using a VPN; it is detrimental to everyone involved. The developers do want to allow authenticated VPN usage if/when it becomes feasible to do so.
There is no way to allow users to have their VPN IP continuously unblocked as a condition of becoming a subscriber; with how things currently work, if an IP is part of an abusive range, it has to remain blocked.
If a feature to allow authenticated usage becomes available, we will definitely post about it in the weekly site news here. It’s one of the site’s most-requested features.
If you actually want them to make changes you should be a contributor already so they have more resources to work on things. Trying to hold site policy hostage for your one contribution isn’t an effective strategy
Word, will keep that in mind. Thanks for answering my questions!