Why would you want to block Proxy users?

[limbo]

I came across this thread [webmasterworld.com] started by Paynt some time ago - And I wondered for what reason a webmaster would want to stop traffic of any sort reaching the site - low conversion? bad looking logs? I am confused!

I have sent paynt a sticky but she is not often here.

Cheers

Limbo

[bakedjake]

In the post above, paynt said:

I'd like to stop all anonymous visitors

I would imagine that there are better ways to do that, but none of them are easy for the users (for example, you could have everyone register and login to the site).

Blocking proxy visitors would remove some anonymity, at virtually no hassle to users (other than those on proxies), but it's not 100% foolproof. There are ways to tell proxies to hide the fact that they are proxies.

I'd say that one good reason to block anonymous users would be to stop abuse on some sort of interactive (i.e. forum) site. I know that WebmasterWorld does require login from some ISPs because of abuse.

[Slone]

Stopping all anonymous visitors. I would think not possible considering all the options available. If you have issues (whatever those may be) with anonymous site users, one who interprets logs should be able to notice patterns and take action when needed. This is not hard but can be a chore.

In my opinion this is a pretty extreme call of action. The only reason I could imagine taking this kind of action, would be if most the sites traffic were abuse related in one form or another. It depends on your audience really.

We get people now and then using proxy account and other methods to view our content or to download any one of our sites. We don’t care for the most part – for those who suck a lot of bandwidth we take appropriate action.

limbo
Perhaps if you could elaborate on the intention of your inquiry a more solution-based discussion could be expanded on…

[lambo]

I saw a post by paynt last summer about being stalked or harrassed online by someone and she stopped posting. She was writing about it on her blog but that's gone now too so maybe the creep just got to be too much. It's a shame really to miss out on such good posting because of a freak. I would suggest she contact her host for ideas. My host helped me out with some things on the server level when I wanted to block some IPs. Not sure if that would help but it would be better than nothing.

[Trent05]

Sorry. I think I posted my message in the wrong place. It should have been under this thread.

The only site I know of that lets you block surfers using anonymous proxy servers is www.countrycheck.com