TalkChess.com

Thanks. IMO this situation is not bearable. We need all computerchess enthusiasts and programmers. Not only those coming from the west.

Have you tried using a VPN?.....you can hide your identity and dial into a server in a different country that allows you to access this forum? Your original IP address is hidden, replaced by the hosts ip address. Free VPNs are not always as secure often logging client details and browsing habits to sell on to justify cost. ExpressVPN, NordVPN and PrivateInternetAccess are three top VPN service providers.

duncan wrote: ↑Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:17 pm

Ovyron wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 4:16 am If people want a free VPN to access Talkchess I recommend SoftEther VPN, I've been able to use it to bypass blocks of videos in my country, and yes, when you can watch videos it's because it's very fast and transparent.

What components are you meant to download?

https://www.softether-download.com/en.a ... =softether

Just the Client.

One easy way to access talkchess from Poland is to download the Opera browser and then enable built-in VPN there.
It still doesn't work using Polish IP unfortunately.

Most of the time I cannot log in through my VPN. This is a rare moment when I can. And I am going to use it to write that as long as this situation persists, I will not post on this forum. My lifelong habit was to avoid discriminatory environments, and TalkChess became one of them. I will never accept "solutions" such as being forced to send my IP for verification or using additional tools in order to post.

Pawel this is a very sad news.
IMO an international computerchess forum needs open access for people from all over the world.
The situation as it is in the moment is not acceptable.

The problem is IMO that those members who Have access here seem not really much interested in the fact that others cannot access talkchess.

Thanks for your message. Maybe we can find a solution .

PK wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:00 pm Most of the time I cannot log in through my VPN. This is a rare moment when I can. And I am going to use it to write that as long as this situation persists, I will not post on this forum. My lifelong habit was to avoid discriminatory environments, and TalkChess became one of them. I will never accept "solutions" such as being forced to send my IP for verification or using additional tools in order to post.

Totally understandable. I hope talkchess finds a better solution than blocking whole IP of a country.

Daniel Shawul wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:33 am

PK wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:00 pm Most of the time I cannot log in through my VPN. This is a rare moment when I can. And I am going to use it to write that as long as this situation persists, I will not post on this forum. My lifelong habit was to avoid discriminatory environments, and TalkChess became one of them. I will never accept "solutions" such as being forced to send my IP for verification or using additional tools in order to post.

Totally understandable. I hope talkchess finds a better solution than blocking whole IP of a country.

As someone who lives in China, and who is also good friends with Pawel, I know how he feels.

It seems people extend their political opinions to the existence of the very forum itself.

If your country is not a good friend of the Western blob of "Allied" nations, you're blocked.

I didn't know the forum was at risk from Polish or Chinese hackers?

P.S. I use Astrill VPN to access this site for a long time already.

BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:12 am

Daniel Shawul wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:33 am

PK wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:00 pm Most of the time I cannot log in through my VPN. This is a rare moment when I can. And I am going to use it to write that as long as this situation persists, I will not post on this forum. My lifelong habit was to avoid discriminatory environments, and TalkChess became one of them. I will never accept "solutions" such as being forced to send my IP for verification or using additional tools in order to post.

Totally understandable. I hope talkchess finds a better solution than blocking whole IP of a country.

As someone who lives in China, and who is also good friends with Pawel, I know how he feels.

It seems people extend their political opinions to the existence of the very forum itself.

If your country is not a good friend of the Western blob of "Allied" nations, you're blocked.

I didn't know the forum was at risk from Polish or Chinese hackers?

P.S. I use Astrill VPN to access this site for a long time already.

Run the forums off three or so mirror sites scattered around the world, no reason one of them can’t be in China (hint), one in US and one in Europe, for example. Are there willing technical members in South America or Africa? Even better. That’s basically a no-ownership situation, which basically has the side effect of returning the forums to the community.

BrendanJNorman wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 5:12 am

Daniel Shawul wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 2:33 am

PK wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:00 pm Most of the time I cannot log in through my VPN. This is a rare moment when I can. And I am going to use it to write that as long as this situation persists, I will not post on this forum. My lifelong habit was to avoid discriminatory environments, and TalkChess became one of them. I will never accept "solutions" such as being forced to send my IP for verification or using additional tools in order to post.

Totally understandable. I hope talkchess finds a better solution than blocking whole IP of a country.

As someone who lives in China, and who is also good friends with Pawel, I know how he feels.

It seems people extend their political opinions to the existence of the very forum itself.

If your country is not a good friend of the Western blob of "Allied" nations, you're blocked.

I didn't know the forum was at risk from Polish or Chinese hackers?

P.S. I use Astrill VPN to access this site for a long time already.

IMO, using a VPN to coonnect at this site makes us safer since this site is not yet using SSL.
So I don't take it as an offense when some people blocked a bunch of ISP's (mine included) for the past year.
Recently back to normal just a month ago, in my case.
I think they (the forum host managing the server/s) just wanted us to connect with our passwords, posts or
private messages being encrypted first before travelling down the line.
They probably figured out that connecting to a non-SSL server from other continent is risky without using some kind of encryption.
Hence, forcing almost everybody to connect via VPN. Otherwise an impostor, pretending to be you, could be posting damaging messages on this forum.
Nobody wants that.

So blocking some members, while counter-intuitive, is actually a friendly gesture in my opinion because this would force them to use a vpn.

p.s. I know the counter argument to my above post would be, "But my VPN provider located at US (or other country not blocked by talkchess firewall) can also sniff my secrets too" which would make the above security gesture useless. Well, that's a different topic and therefore requries you to chose your vpn provider wisely.