Does Google track IP addresses by post?

[emeeks]

We're a new computer repair forums, just starting up, and we'd like to make it look busy.

Our goal is to have posts created, and to do this, we thought about creating several users(ourselves) to post Q&A. Now my question is, does Google track IP addresses, and is this bad in anyway?

Obviously, I'd prefer to have other users posting questions, but we need to get it off the ground first. Any info would be fantastic!

 

[VirusZero]

Google likely isn't going to have access to that information... (Not unless you give guests the ability to view IPs. And that's probably not a good idea to begin with.)

They might be able to tell if two accounts are yours based on any tracking cookies they have set if you use Google Analytics or Adsense. But I'm not 100% sure on that (I don't recall offhand every bit of data they collect for those services).

But even if you have two or so accounts, they really don't care. If anything members are going to care more than Google.
Members don't like feeling like they've been lied to and using fake accounts to boost stats can cause people to feel like they were lied to. Which can very easily turn people away...
And it might be better to use a post exchange here to get some members to just post around a bit to help generate some traffic. (It's a bit better than responding to yourself at least... Which can get tedious.)

 

[emeeks]

Google likely isn't going to have access to that information... (Not unless you give guests the ability to view IPs. And that's probably not a good idea to begin with.)

They might be able to tell if two accounts are yours based on any tracking cookies they have set if you use Google Analytics or Adsense. But I'm not 100% sure on that (I don't recall offhand every bit of data they collect for those services).

But even if you have two or so accounts, they really don't care. If anything members are going to care more than Google.
Members don't like feeling like they've been lied to and using fake accounts to boost stats can cause people to feel like they were lied to. Which can very easily turn people away...
And it might be better to use a post exchange here to get some members to just post around a bit to help generate some traffic. (It's a bit better than responding to yourself at least... Which can get tedious.)

Thanks for the reply. I'd be more than happy to assist with any computer related questions (if genuine). The problem is, we have no posts at all, and because of that, people aren't signing up and generating the "buzz".

All I want is to kick start the forums so more people sign up to ask real questions and be a part of the community. I have no desire to be fake, or misleading in anyway, aside from getting it off the ground.