New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: Why is HN blocking Mullvad?
Ask HN: Why is HN blocking Mullvad?
10 by tomxor | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Today I was presented with a blank HTTP 403 when trying to access the HN login page, but only on Mullvad. Has HN added new blocking mechanisms, if so why, and how do they work... and more generally, why is blocking VPN IPs becoming more common? The standard excuse I've heard before is "VPNs are a larger source of abuse". I take issue with this reasoning in that firstly: it lacks a denominator, VPNs are a larger source of traffic in general, abuse should be considered as a ratio. Secondly, VPNs are a known highly NATed collection of IPs, so lots of legitimate users will be thrown under the bus in the same stroke. These arguments usually fall on deaf ears with most site owners who do not care about user discrimination, and will reach for the easiest blunt tool rather than make their service more fundamentally resilient. I expected more from HN though.
10 by tomxor | 1 comments on Hacker News.
Today I was presented with a blank HTTP 403 when trying to access the HN login page, but only on Mullvad. Has HN added new blocking mechanisms, if so why, and how do they work... and more generally, why is blocking VPN IPs becoming more common? The standard excuse I've heard before is "VPNs are a larger source of abuse". I take issue with this reasoning in that firstly: it lacks a denominator, VPNs are a larger source of traffic in general, abuse should be considered as a ratio. Secondly, VPNs are a known highly NATed collection of IPs, so lots of legitimate users will be thrown under the bus in the same stroke. These arguments usually fall on deaf ears with most site owners who do not care about user discrimination, and will reach for the easiest blunt tool rather than make their service more fundamentally resilient. I expected more from HN though.
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