That setting is in your account, tab 'Privacy', option "IP Address Logging" (below "Captcha" and "Spam Protection"). The default setting is, I think, to log the addresses of all anonymous posters (mine is set to log all posters). You can turn it off if you want.
Note that only the person who made the post (not the comments) sees the addresses. They look like "2011-09-15 09:55 am (local) (from 192.168.130.254)" in the header of the comment (underneath the name of the person). And the point is to be able to identify (and if appropriate report) trolls, spammers, and other abusers who often do so anonymously (the IP address will often let them be identified at least to a source institution, if not the actual machine). Note that just the statement that they are being logged is sometimes enough to stop them doing it.
A lot of people consider that if they are 'anonymous' they can say whatever they like and no one can do anything about it. They can be rude, abusive and generally disruptive because no one knows who they are. This is why FB and Google+ have instituted an "only real names" policy -- what they have missed is that it's not using a "real name" (which isn't even defined, few people use their full legal birth names anywhere), it's being identified. I am known and have a reputation on LJ as 'keristor', for instance, if I start making trouble using that I'll get a bad reputation (my real legal name is irrelevant to that).
Sharon could, if she wanted, just block anonymous comments totally. She doesn't because she's a nice person and knows that many of her readers don't have LJ (or FaceBook or whatever) accounts and (for reasons they find compelling) don't want to get such accounts. And that LJ sometimes logs users out and doesn't tell them so they post as 'anonymous' by accident. Because she's a nice person she generally lets those through the first time, and does if the person doesn't have an account but identifies themself in the comment itself.
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mmmag
no subject
Date: 2011-09-15 09:13 am (UTC)Note that only the person who made the post (not the comments) sees the addresses. They look like "2011-09-15 09:55 am (local) (from 192.168.130.254)" in the header of the comment (underneath the name of the person). And the point is to be able to identify (and if appropriate report) trolls, spammers, and other abusers who often do so anonymously (the IP address will often let them be identified at least to a source institution, if not the actual machine). Note that just the statement that they are being logged is sometimes enough to stop them doing it.
A lot of people consider that if they are 'anonymous' they can say whatever they like and no one can do anything about it. They can be rude, abusive and generally disruptive because no one knows who they are. This is why FB and Google+ have instituted an "only real names" policy -- what they have missed is that it's not using a "real name" (which isn't even defined, few people use their full legal birth names anywhere), it's being identified. I am known and have a reputation on LJ as 'keristor', for instance, if I start making trouble using that I'll get a bad reputation (my real legal name is irrelevant to that).
Sharon could, if she wanted, just block anonymous comments totally. She doesn't because she's a nice person and knows that many of her readers don't have LJ (or FaceBook or whatever) accounts and (for reasons they find compelling) don't want to get such accounts. And that LJ sometimes logs users out and doesn't tell them so they post as 'anonymous' by accident. Because she's a nice person she generally lets those through the first time, and does if the person doesn't have an account but identifies themself in the comment itself.