There is no problem logging in, and once I'm logged in you know who I am and can associate my actions with my account regardless of my IP (which isn't static even when not using a VPN). The problem is posting and reading posts.
Same solution apples.
To be clear, I'm not unsympathetic, and I don't mean to be flippant. Guys like you are obviously not who we want to make things difficult for. It's just that maximum privacy for users is at odds with maximum security for forums. As a person, I use VPNs or proxies from time to time, and I'm glad I have that option available. But as a forum owner, I wish neither existed, so I'm not inclined to make them work better here.
Not to get off on a tangent, but in this age of Machine Learning, I'll bet we're not far off from seeing VPN-Busting services, which guys like me could subscribe to. VPNs can mask your IP and your computer and all that stuff ... but they can't mask what time you visited, or what your tendencies are while you're here. Dots can be connected with that information alone. Not to mention I can often identify
which masking service someone is using, because they all have their own patterns. In some cases, they're surprisingly easy to spot, and there have been a whole bunch of times where I've been able to make conclusions about who somebody is, just be eyeballing the data and comparing with what we already know.
It's very inefficient for a little guy like me to do by hand, of course, but put some computers to the task of coordinating the data from thousands of other sites. If I can do it by eyeball, then computers can certainly machine-learn it. Then charge handsomely for the service, and any company who has to combat fraud will happily pay the fee and feed the machine.
