[AlienRobot]

It's been a while since I last used IRC, but afaik one of the issues with it was that servers revealed the IP address of users to every other user by default. Since the IP is geographic that's one piece of information you could use to doxx someone.

[gordonfish]

IP addresses aren't linked to a complete street address, and many times don't even show the right town, especially those on CG-NAT or a plain ol' direct public dynamic address. I have seen some IPs, like on AT&T and Comcast home Internet, showing a different state.

So in many cases, you don't need a VPN to prevent revealing your actual geographic location.

[esseph]

And some IPs stick to users for over a decade, and over time the data pieces add up and connect the dots.

[bitbasher]

Libera gives all registered users a cloak to hide their ip.

[netsharc]

It'd be trivial (TM) for someone to make a web interface, and the connections would say "Connecting from some-data-center.aws-cloud.bl"...

[dollylambda]

There are many ways to mask your "real" ip address, VPN being an easy start.

[crote]

The fact that this is needed at all is a serious problem. Making people who aren't aware of some obscure details accidentally doxx themselves is incredibly user-hostile.