finding out who is leaving comments on our Web site

Just wondering, if I have someone's IP address, can I figure out who someone is who is leaving comments on our web site ... thanks...

 

depends on the isp. for instance, an aol user (are those still out there) would show up with an ip address that could be being used at that same moment by hundreds of people. i do believe it's the same when using an air card and verizon or at&t internet anywhere. you also have know way of knowing who it is when they're using free wi-fi.

 

Does your paper not require people to register an active e-mail to post?

 

unfortunately, no, but we have to approve posts before they go up ... there is one person, I believe a former employee at our shop, who is just taking shots at everything and everyone through our comments section... it's just getting annoying ... i've tried a gentle 'hey, we hear you already' post (using my real name) but that just has this person even more fired up ...

 

OK, so if someone has to approve the comments, why are the ones by the person you think is a former employee still getting through?

 

Right, why don't you just reject them if they're out of line?

 

I forget the name of the site that we used to use here so we wouldn't have to register for every newspaper site. There were a ton of papers where the email address used to register was fuck@fuckyou.com

 

bugmenot.com, probably.

 

Ours does. Of course, a lot of people's e-mail addresses don't even contain a hint as to what their real name is. So if they sign up as nutjob@deeznuts.com, use a fake name such as Heywood Jablowme, post a fake address such as 100 S. Main (There isn't one in this town) and use 555-1212 as their phone number (or, as someone used to do, use other people's phone numbers), then you'll never know who they are.

 

And I'm sure that e-mail is active.

We have the program send an activation link to every poster before they are fully registered.

I'm just surprised more papers aren't strict like that.

 

Every Newhouse site I have ever visited believes I am a woman from Beverly Hills who was born in 1901.

 

That's interesting.

When I visit any Newhouse site, I am a woman from the Northwest born in 1904.

Isn't the point of comments to have all of them, good and bad? Unless the "former employee" is posting something libelous, vulgar or giving away internal secrets, so what? Would you find out who someone else is just because you didn't like their continued comments?