Today, for the first time on Lemmy, I received a message about posting being forbidden from VPNs.

That's not usually how it works. Sites ban and block IP addresses. Someone going through your VPN caused such issues that Lemmy.world blocked the IP. The VPN is being used to abuse people. That's not a VPN's fault, but the nature of the beast.

I personally don't think a VPN is even necessary with the Fediverse, as none of us are going to collect IP's. But try changing the VPN's location or trying a different VPN.

I hit the same issue a couple weeks ago. I wonder if it’s tied to the Fediverse Chick thing or people who were spamming CSAM

Not sure about that last paragraph. How would an instance block an IP without storing IPs?

The info has been on their sidebar for years now.

https://lemmy.world/post/11967676

Yes, when you ban. You can see IP addresses coming through, but the fediverse folks aren't leveraging your IP for any kind of advantage. No tracking for ads or things. So what security precautions are we taking for Fediverse servers? I peraonnaly do the feel the need, but I'm sure there at valid reasons to do it. But if it's just tracking and ads, they don't exist here really.

Honestly, if security is a main concern for anyone here, you should run your own. Anyone can run any of this. Follow what you want, then all connections to Lemmy.world come from your server you control that you connect to. I'm on piefed.social, but I'm planning on running my own eventually.

My guess is that the IP got flagged. In my personal experience, around 70% of VPN servers in California don't let me post on Lemmy for some reason so I just avoid that area entirely at this point. Unfortunately, shitty people use VPNs to do shitty things too.

idk man, sh.it just .works here 👀

(use another instance lmao)

I dunno, but since the Threadiverse is federated, you can post on any community on lemmy.world (or elsewhere) that a federated instance can see by just creating an account on that instance.

https://piefed.fediverse.observer/

https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/

https://mbin.fediverse.observer/

I mean, there are plenty of public instances out there to choose from.

EDIT: If @dsilverz@calckey.world is correct that it's some issue that CloudFlare is taking with the exit address on the VPN, you can check whether a given instance is using CloudFlare by running whois on its IP address.

For lemmy.today:

$ host lemmy.today
lemmy.today has address 5.78.97.5
[snip]
$ whois 5.78.97.5|grep -i ^netname
netname:        CLOUD-HIL

Not using CloudFlare.

for lemmy.world:

$ host lemmy.world
lemmy.world has address 104.26.9.209
[snip]
$ whois 104.26.9.209|grep -i ^netname
NetName:        CLOUDFLARENET
$

Using CloudFlare.

For me it works when I log out/log in while connected to the VPN. But sometimes when I'm at a different access point and my routing changes, it goes back to me not being able to comment.

ain't it typical, tho?

The gamble of the fediverse is that you're outside the realm of the blatantly bad actors like the Zucks and Muskerburgs, but you're also off the edge of the map. No reason to believe that there be no dragons here. Anyone can run one, which includes bad actors. I wouldn't be implicitly trusting that the hundreds of individual volunteers that keep the fediverse afloat all have good intentions. cough.ml serverscough

Not really an answer, but lassaiz-fair approach with VPN/Tor for a community like this is just a call for disaster.

Can't have nice things. Can't really complain either imo. Thats's just how the world is.

To those who didn't click onward, the answer in that post is apparently 2 years (by implication of its post date)

Ironically it also invalidates the top comment in this thread claiming they aren't concerned with VPNs, just specific VPN IPs that have been abused in the past.

That’s not usually how it works.

It is apparently how it works for lemmy.world, as of at least this post from two years ago:

https://lemmy.world/post/11967676

Your coughing might have caused you to not hear that those ml server folks literally wrote the software you are using...

none of us are going to collect IPs

Bold claim.

False. I'm using piefed. Also, so what? Doesn't make what I've said incorrect.

It says its due to people posting illegal content. Also, if you see this, I'm running a VPN and it worked. VPNs are just other people's IP addresses that massive amounts of folks use. 1 bad apple ruins the lot.

as none of us are going to collect IP's

then consider that not only your server operator has the capability, but any image host too that is referenced in a post or comment

the software is open source. we can verify it doesn't do anything bad. the server is what you cannot trust.

NOT be able to [...]

Spoiler: You are absolutely still able to :P

How would an instance block an IP without storing IPs?

They could be blocking entire IP ranges. So they wouldn't have to store specific IPs. I'm not in the hosting industry but I would imagine there are groups tracking the CIDR blocks (IP ranges) that VPN providers use for their exit nodes. If such a list exists, a host could simply subscribe to accept whatever updates occur to those lists and implement the block for them.

Yes, that is what it claims.