Display user location when they join your server.

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ppotter
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by ppotter »

I don't see the issue with people knowing a pretty vague location. Surely the opt-out here is simply not entering the server.


Off-topic: Light, is there anywhere to view the top scores in your snake survival game?
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Light
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

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ppotter wrote:Off-topic: Light, is there anywhere to view the top scores in your snake survival game?
I have to check things out with a few of my servers sometime here. There should be a command to view them in-game, along with your specific rank. The page on my old site that showed the score list isn't there anymore, but I could easily remake it.

I'll try and check some of that out tonight.
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ConVicT
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

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ppotter wrote:I don't see the issue with people knowing a pretty vague location. Surely the opt-out here is simply not entering the server.
So everyone agrees that it should be at least mentioned in Options?
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Light
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by Light »

ConVicT wrote:So everyone agrees that it should be at least mentioned in Options?
I was thinking about that being a solution as well to make people happy. I don't think you should be forced to do it though.
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sinewav
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by sinewav »

Light wrote:...this game isn't really active enough to handle that becoming a popular choice.
With such a small community we can't afford divisive features. At this point in Arma's history, "play somewhere else" usually means "don't play at all and fire up a different game," especially when there are barely enough players to fill a single server most times of the day.

Can someone give me a breakdown of how this "feature" helps the community more than it hurts? I understand server owners have freedom to do whatever they want, and undesirable servers usually fall into obscurity, but that doesn't mean they won't have an impact. I think server owners should be considerate of this fact. I purposefully avoid Oasis Sumo because of the tagging, so when that's the only populated server I just don't play at all (or play locally, which I do a lot of these days).

You know what would be better information to display? If the new player's connection comes from a VPN or some other proxy. Or better yet, let's a have a list of known proxys for server owners to easily forbid.
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Light
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by Light »

sinewav wrote:Can someone give me a breakdown of how this "feature" helps the community more than it hurts?
I don't see it as being helpful or harmful. Just my opinion though, and our opinions obviously differ here, but I don't see it as something worth avoiding so strongly I wouldn't play because of it.
sinewav wrote:You know what would be better information to display? If the new player's connection comes from a VPN or some other proxy. Or better yet, let's a have a list of known proxys for server owners to easily forbid.
There are some databases available to detect VPN's, along with a few ways to tell depending on which VPN is being used if it's coming from a VPN, but you will never just generally block VPN's period. The point of them is to be like anyone else, but not be traced back to. It's honestly just not worth the effort.

There's also the problem that some normal users play and surf all sites through a VPN, and you would target them as well.
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ConVicT
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by ConVicT »

There's only one reason to forbid proxies and that is if someone is avoiding a ban. Other than that, sinwav, why would you want to forbid them? I mean for one thing, if I entered your server, you could use a geolocation site and find out where I'm from. Why should only you (a server owner) know?
I know I can trust you to say something like "Don't ask me, ask the person you want to know about", or something along those lines.
What I'm saying here is that every server has a geolocation built in, the only thing is, you have to ask.

I've used proxies in servers where I don't trust the owner because I've actually had attacks to my home connection because of Arma. That alone is a reason for me to want to use a VPN.

The geolocator isn't that much of a big deal. I can see how it could hurt servers, and some people wouldn't even tell you where they live if you were to ask them and then a server just blabs and the player leaves in a huff; adding it to Options should make that kind of thing avoidable, or at least it would be their own fault for never reading anything.

I'm going to wipe all of my reports and ask players to /report what they think of it.
I'll post the reports here after a week or so and we'll see what everyone thinks (these are the players that don't even have logins and have never even been here, for the most part).
Maybe they'll all love it and you'll be gobsmacked. We never really see much of their opinions.
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ppotter
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by ppotter »

Light wrote:
ppotter wrote:Off-topic: Light, is there anywhere to view the top scores in your snake survival game?
I have to check things out with a few of my servers sometime here. There should be a command to view them in-game, along with your specific rank. The page on my old site that showed the score list isn't there anymore, but I could easily remake it.

I'll try and check some of that out tonight.
Alright, cheers. There's no rush, just wondered how far from the top I was :D
ConVicT wrote:
ppotter wrote:I don't see the issue with people knowing a pretty vague location. Surely the opt-out here is simply not entering the server.
So everyone agrees that it should be at least mentioned in Options?
Would be helpful but obviously it's up to individual server admins whether they actually add that.
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ConVicT
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by ConVicT »

It's not exactly much more effort than adding the script.

It's actually much less effort since I keep breaking my script trying to add it :lol:
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sinewav
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by sinewav »

ConVicT wrote:There's only one reason to forbid proxies and that is if someone is avoiding a ban. Other than that, sin[e]wav, why would you want to forbid them?
That is the only reason I think it would be useful. I agree with your point that not every Arma server can be trusted and proxies have a use in those cases. I take anonymity seriously. Even a slight erosion of privacy is a bad thing, so I cannot agree that a feature like this has a neutral effect. We are on page two of a thread that proves even the idea of sharing geolocation data is having a negative effect. Because "other games do it" is not an excuse to become complacent with people sharing your personal information, no matter how coarse. Just like none of us should be complacent with all the tracking scripts that monitor our online activity every day.
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ConVicT
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by ConVicT »

ConVicT wrote:I'm going to wipe all of my reports and ask players to /report what they think of it.
[2016/11/27-05:44:45] view IP ap|nelg: I see a geolocator, but I already happen to know where I live ;)
[2016/11/28-15:13:29] view IP KezX@aagid: if i wanted people to know where i am from i would tell them
[2016/11/28-15:19:42] view IP bstater: I like the player location feature! It adds better connection between players and shows how diverse Armagetron players can be. Definitely keep it.
[2016/11/28-16:16:15] view IP vefx12: Like the new location feature, would love to be able to check other's locations
[2016/12/01-12:55:54] view IP near: gps isn't efficient : i'm from france rhones-alpes and it's writted i'm from france nord-pas-de-calais. Same issue for sinji but not the same region
[2016/12/07-15:26:08] Nodame: i think it's fine
[2016/12/08-15:13:55] apex: the bare nessesities, the simple bare nessesities
[2016/12/08-15:22:31] never: Please delete the public message about where a player joined from. I will bake you a cake in Badenwürtemberg Germany.

Not much to go on, I expected a lot more.
I can say that my server became a lot less active since it was added.
I still really can't tell if people like it or not.
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aP|Nelg
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Re: Display user location when they join your server.

Post by aP|Nelg »

ConVicT wrote:[2016/11/27-05:44:45] MY.IP.IS.NOT.IMPORTANT.TO.YOU.9 ap|nelg: I see a geolocator, but I already happen to know where I live ;)
Ha this guy is so funny!

On a serious note, it doesn't print our cities which I think was the issue with the other server that people complained about.
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