What does everything think now this has been removed?

has it? O_o

There are pro's and con's.

Pro's would obviously be user safety/privacy.

Con's would be for player's who are being stalked or impersonated - there would be no definitive way of knowing for sure. That said, admin's are normally on the ball and if there is a real problem re: stalker/impersonation issues, then my advice would always be to screen-cap and send it to feedback.

But... personally, I think it's a good call.

I've been talking about this for a long time actually, I think it's a good improvement. Multiple times I've had people plug in my ip into a tracker and then post my city in the public chat.

It's odd for a site to allow every user to that kind of information, if they were to keep it, I think they should have at least some kind of notification at the login page. I think a lot of players weren't even aware of it.

I'm pleased, I emailed feedback yesterday concerned my house can be traced within about 3 miles of accuracy throguh my ip and today it is removed. I imagined they have had a lot of complaints, maybe mine tipped the barrel.

Some people post their home town on their profile........not sure why they are concerned about being IP-ed if this is the case :S
I have a couple of morons who like to annoy me under different names..the IP function was useful for finding out if it was the same moron every time, or a selection of different ones...ah well :/

/ip was helpful for finding out if there were two people sharing answers. If there were two people with nearly identical ips (i.e., the first two numbers of the IP were the same), it usually confirmed my suspicions that people were sharing answers. That's about the only thing it was useful for.

In my opinion I think both commands should have remained, but with the 4 octets of IP's hashed using a salted hashing mechanism (where the salt(s) is hard coded and only known to iSketch Admin's at the MOST, if not, only iSketch's owner), so you could still identify someones hashed IP but cant see their real IP.

looks like a magic wand has been waved...

I don't know if it's really going to change the behavior of the jerks and idiots who do things like draw penises or call people names. I've found people who get kicked from a room come right back on in with the same nickname, or, at best, a different nick, but the same behavior.
I really don't think the jerks are going to say, "Ah-ha! Now that my ip address is hidden from the general populace, I can craftily work around kicks and bans."

Yeah, Jobe's wish may have been granted.

It could have done without the comically large encryption afterwards though.

edit: oh, apparently some people still have no /ip...

It could have done without the comically large encryption afterwards though.

Shh!!! Don't tell everyone what the secret code is!!! :biggrin:

I never thought much of the ip's until some complete unknown came into the room i was playing in, and announced in public, the very small town I lived in. I had assumed the ip address would come out of a nearby city, but apparently mine doesn't. I for one am glad the option is gone for regular players.

The option hasn't gone, but has been replaced by a less informative version.

Here is what I get using the /ip command currently:

[username] is coming from 123.123.x.x. (mumbojumbocodestuffs)

Most people I've spoken to about it still get "Sorry, I don't know what IP means" though. For me it works on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Opera so it's probably related to Shockwave version or something (I was asked to update Shockwave a few days ago....).

Hmm I haven't tried this today, but when I tried to /ip last night, it just said it didn't know what IP means.

I'm glad that it has stopped being so specific though...even though people can generally deduce my location by the fact that my profile says I'm in Canada and in my specific timezone, it was still disturbing when the other night a complete stranger announced my location.

I'm happy to see the specifics disappear, because they are completely irrelevant to anyone except for an Admin (I wonder if they can still see the whole ip)....although it is nice for other reasons (such as tracking people who change usernames for the sole purpose of irritation) that there are some vague details that still show up.

the crazy code after the ip is actually a MD5 hash of the ip without the x.x

example

MD5(200.102.90.156) = 1169475cc54b3e463bf82496234f468c

/ip XPERT = XPERT is coming from 200.102.x.x. (1169475cc54b3e463bf82496234f468c)

the crazy code after the ip is actually a MD5 hash of the ip without the x.x

Having the two numbers of the IP address is helpful. However, the hash won't really be helpful (for the average user trying to prevent cheaters) -- even if you have an IP address that is one number off, the hash (should) be radically different.

So, it's not like the hash for 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2 will be "similar". Now, the hash for two people coming from the /same/ IP will be the same... but... what's the point? The game already doesn't allow entry for two people into the same room in the "official" game rooms.

Example:
127.0.0.1:
dd6929d3564eb95ad69dfbee8dde44fa
127.0.0.2:
89786da7103bd33cfc279a307afcf3cb

Having the two numbers of the IP address is helpful. However, the hash won't really be helpful (for the average user trying to prevent cheaters)
I have found that a lot of cheaters do not necessarily come from the same place, as they just IM each other the answers, proximity is not needed.


So, it's not like the hash for 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2 will be "similar". Now, the hash for two people coming from the /same/ IP will be the same... but... what's the point? The game already doesn't allow entry for two people into the same room in the "official" game rooms.


And ever since they fixed the bug that was around for a few years you really can't get into the same room with the same IP... now if i want to do that i have to create a user controlled room (grumble grumble grumble.... haha)


anyways back to the ip thing. i think its a good idea to get rid of it. As for stalkers now that the first two numbers are there, you can still get a fairly good idea that its them again as those numbers should be the same, so nothing really was lost. except now i dont know how to find out my ip....

except now i dont know how to find out my ip....

That's easy, your IP is http://scripts.mdbnet.net/yourip.png (don't worry, you only see your OWN IP, not someone else's) :razz:

haha, ok now instead of going on isketch to find it, ill just have to remember to come on here and look at Jobe's signature...

LOL I'm such a dip, I was at the command prompt, typed /ip and wondered why it wouldn't work. I've been playing this game too long.

I quite like the fact that the IP is partially hidden, so that other people can't pinpoint your location. I did just try it and I got a similar result as nh:

[username] is coming from 123.123.x.x. (mumbojumbocodestuffs)

I guess admins can still see complete IP addresses, so that they can still do the magic stuff when needed, but at least you won't get random strangers blurting out your location :)

What would prevent someone from capturing a packet and picking it apart from that particular user? Or are all the packets coming from the game itself, not from the "users"? Or are we just going to assume nobody knows how to do that?

Or are we just going to assume nobody knows how to do that?

:biggrin:I like that one:biggrin:

Maybe it's a new way to get into "De Crypt"...

What would prevent someone from capturing a packet and picking it apart from that particular user? Or are all the packets coming from the game itself, not from the "users"? Or are we just going to assume nobody knows how to do that?

With the exception of profile icons, as far as I know all the packets come from the game's server itself. Much like IRC does, where the browser side component (the user interface) connects to the server and sends messages, where the server then relays them to everyone else.

Maybe it's a new way to get into "De Crypt"...

it's DA Crypt. Whenever it says decrypt to admin, an admin gets squashed by the giant mashmallow Stay Puft man.

i thought it was like Dick and Dom in Da Crypt House

Does Effie live there?

* db1986 goes off to look for an admin named Effie who may hold the key
On topic: But yeah I still think it's a good idea to partially mask the IP address.

Well, it was never really that hard to figure out where people were "from", even without using the /ip. After a while, you kind of got a general "gist" of where people were logging on from by their time zones. Sure, you didn't get the city, but you know the continent and the country most of the time.
A lot of the kids are like "OMG!? HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!" Not that hard, bud.

Regarding time zones & OMG's...

It always amused me when people forgot the world was a sphere.


Me: 'G'night all'
FlatEarth: WTF you talking about it's 9am here!

:twisted: