Why use this instead of a name?

+4 votes
361 views

Why use an IP Address and not a proper a name?

in The Tree House by Shann Treharne G2G2 (2.8k points)
edited by Michael Cayley
Please edit your question and remove the number.  It is someone who was not logged in, and that number can be used to attach their isp.
I don't know what it is
It's someone's IP address, and should not be public.
So why use it then when thanking me for making changes to my tree? If they do not want it public or it should not be public then they should use their name and how can they who ever they are react to my changes when they themselves are not logged in? I  get told to log in in if I want to react or comment
I have edited the question to remove the IP address
Thank you, Michael.
While an IP address is what allows e-mail and such to find a particular person, it is generally not identifiable after the fact to a particular person or home address.

Unless you have your own web page with a fixed IP address, it's assigned to you when you log in and can change over time. The first set of numbers will indicate general physical location. Now with wi-fi routers and such that are permanently connected, it might remain the same until you reboot your router (not 100% sure on that). Also note that a person can be using a work computer or library computer, and the IP address would point only to that business. I wouldn't worry too much about hiding someone's IP address, but also not real helpful to spread it around.

IP geolocation can pinpoint the ISP and can be used for DOS/DDOS attacks. 
I can tell you the country name, the state / province / county, the city, the latitude, the longitude, the time zone, and the name of the ISP.
While that may not lead me to the person posting (who may have been using an anonymiser), it would certainly not be healthy for the named ISP if I had nefarious intentions.

In my opinion, we would be just as well served if the thank you said "someone not logged in", rather than listing the IP#.

Maybe you should propose that, Melanie.

As far as I can tell the thankyou logs can be accessed by anyone without being logged in to WikiTree.
Bots etc are less likely to be crawling the individual thank you logs of the hundreds/thousands of members, than a public forum or message board, which is why such should not be openly posted to g2g.

2 Answers

+12 votes
 
Best answer

That looks like a time followed by an IP address. I get those sometimes in my "Thank You Feed" - I believe it happens when the person thanking you is not logged-in to WikiTree, so WikiTree doesn't know their name, only the IP address of the device they are using.

by Paul Masini G2G6 Pilot (382k points)
selected by Laura DeSpain
+9 votes
Since a few people expressed concern over using the IP addresses for anonymous thankers, we changed them to "[anonymous 143]". That way people can see if the same person thanked them for multiple items, but they won't see the entire IP address.
by Jamie Nelson G2G6 Pilot (613k points)
Thanks Jamie, I have several thank yous from only IP addresses, it would be interesting to see if they are all the same person.

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