If you want to keep narrowing it down. You should go to the next step … a brand new clean OS on a dedicated laptop. Install a new Linux OS, new browser, new profile, do absolutely nothing with any of it, set up a VPN, try the site again.

If that fails, then chances are the ID is being done some other way … do you have control of your router? Are you accessing the internet through someone’s connection? maybe your ISP and your general area, regardless of who is using VPN.

The other possibility is … Are you tethering on a phone? I notice that phone devices seem to play loose with VPN and due to geolocation built into the device tagged to wifi locating services, phones leak location all the time.

The other thing that’s been creeping into everyone’s system is … browser fingerprinting

This means that if you accessed something somewhere sometime and you got flagged or located, your browser stores key identifying data, history, cookies, etc to basically fingerprint your browser to any and all systems out there in the future. If your browser goes somewhere again, it won’t matter if you have a VPN, the online systems remember your browser and will identify you, your location and your history because they’ve already logged all that data.

If you keep using that same browser with the same profile over and over again, and with all your other accounts, history and user info, it’s like driving in the same car day in / day out. Eventually everyone remembers you because you keep driving the same car. It won’t matter what kind of VPN, cloaking or obfuscation you use … all everyone will do is look for the same car you drove last time.

Try setting up a new profile on Firefox/LibreWolf or other browser on a clean unused profile and try again to see what happens.

The other important question is … what OS are you using? … Windows is notorious for leaking location and bypassing VPNs (especially IP, DNS and location) … don’t know much about MAC but I also wouldn’t trust them … Linux is more secure depending on which distro you use and how you use it

Might help all of us understand this if you told us what your general location is? Which country? Which state? Which region?

Obviously don’t dox yourself … but giving a general location will tell us which regions are actively enforcing all this.

Also … are you using a VPN … because if you are then …

• your VPN is accessing the network at a region that does age verification
• your VPN is being bypassed or not working properly or your system is leaking your IP and location
• the network, website or system doesn’t allow users through VPN

Don’t know … I can’t afford internet credits in order to access a connection.

It sounds like you’ll fit right in … great to have you here … have fun!

I got my side arm, my cyanide pills, my classified dossier…

…

Oh wait, sorry, I got the wrong song … :(

I was making light of your question … partly to have a bit of fun … and partly to show that the community enjoys sharing these silly little bits of movie quotes that act like memes. The one I was using is from the movie “The Naked Gun” (the original film from 1988 with Leslie Nielson)

A lot of the meme communities enjoy old slapstick movie content as there is a lot of memeable content there … films like ‘The Naked Gun’ series, Hot Shots, any of the Mel Brooks films and Monty Python.

Don’t be afraid to test your boundaries, comment as you like but with an open mind and kind heart … people will let you know if you’ve said or implied anything negative or positive. Don’t be discouraged if you get no response either … it’s not a popularity contest. The longer you stay, the more you comment, the more you get to know people and the more they get to know you and eventually you become a regular part of the community.

Welcome to Lemmy and welcome to the fediverse.

Uncle Owen!!! This one has a bad motivator!!

I just don’t value Christmas much any more … I do give out gifts but at this point, I just hand out money to the people I want to gift to because I never know what people want, especially kids and teens … and when you give them money, they know exactly what they want to do with it.

Halloween however, I do spend a lot more on. And I don’t spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on big ugly props and blow up things or store bought crap … I spend quite a bit of money building up a supply of candies, chocolates and chips. I take the month leading up to the holiday and steadily buy a little bit at a time. Then by Halloween, I’ll hand out handfuls of stuff to every kid that comes to the door. This year I had 100 kids and they each got a bunch of stuff. Then I have a tradition at the end of the night of waiting as long as possible and then giving away whatever I have left to the last kid. This year, it was a couple of teen boys who looked to be about 15/16, I filled one guys bag by dumping my box of chocolates into his sack … the other kid was just messing around and didn’t even have a bag, so I gave him a supply of old pillow cases I had ready, handed him one and told him to open it up as I dumped the rest of my chocolates and chips … those were two of the happiest guys I got that night … the bonus was that I didn’t end up with all that candy that would have made me sick anyway.

Starts? … I think Google has been sharing our data behind our backs like a school girl that promised to keep a secret

Bingo! … that is why Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol as a series of ghosts that visit Scrooge … it was a tradition of story telling of retelling scary ghost stories during the longest day of the year … the moment in the year known in pagan religion as the moment in the year when the dark forces are at their strongest and highest … the winter solstice, the longest night of the year when the darkness is at its strongest … but also a moment of hope, as the light has started to return and the days grow longer.

I do spend a lot of money on Halloween … more than Christmas … but it also means I don’t go crazy either. Almost all the money I spend just goes to candies, chocolates and chips … the Halloween serving size … I’m not going to start going further than that. I also don’t spend much on decorations, I put up enough to make people and kids know I’m celebrating Halloween … and I decorate five or six real pumpkins. That’s it … I put on a sound system with scary music and Halloween songs and serve candy all night long.

Gives a whole new gravity to this time of year

Then tell them they’re part of the gang and to join everyone else as we go wedgie and noogie the next new guy

“I’m sure we can handle this situation maturely, just like the responsible adults that we are. Isn’t that right, Mr. Poopy Pants?”

Third for Summit

Take advice from Detective Frank Drebin

“Like a blindman at an orgy, I was going to have to feel my way through”

It’s our modern day version of SNAKE OIL

That looks amazing and I bet it tasted just as good.

For anyone wondering if it looks terrible … just because it doesn’t look pretty doesn’t mean it tastes bad. This type of cooking ensures everything is cooked through evenly and at the same rate.