Some registration issues.......

[CanadianMike]

Rather minor but am posting them up here. Whiskey 87 said he had a hard time getting registered, he finally did (something along his gmail at home not working but at work he was able to), but a few have had a difficult time registering and get a rude "You are not welcome here" message when something causes the registration to be not complete. Looks like name choices causes that, among other things.

Just a heads up, will let you know more as/if they come in.

Mike

[Whiskey87]

This was on the website end of things, Mike. The main problem was I had no idea which part of my application was not to standard, as it was the same error message delivered each time with nothing highlighted to show where I went wrong. If I had just found the website on my own I probably would have stopped after being told "Your registration is not welcome here."

[Martin]

I can shed a small amount of light on this. As Mike may remember, we had a serious problem with spammers registering and posting junk; some of it quite obscene. As a result, we now use an automated system to reject new accounts when their user name or email address matches a database of know spammers. This is the third occasion to my certain knowledge where it has rejected genuine people trying to register a genuine account.

The problem is that, since the system went live about 4 weeks ago, it has rejected over 3,000 spam accounts which means a failure rate of 0.1% which is pretty good, although not so great if you are one of the three which you sadly are.

Anyway, it's great to have you here W87 and when you get your user name sorted out it will be great to put a name to your account as well. :)

Martin

[CanadianMike]

Oh geez, yes, the spammers, I forgot about that, they were incessant, and I reported many of them. As I told Ashley when he thanked me, I brought up the time difference and basically said I was acting as the night watchman for the forum. Lol

Anyways, Whiskey tried his name Wilson but got rejected............. but you can call him SW from now on. :)

[Whiskey87]

My personal belief is that all systems employed by man can be improved upon, but to which extent this system shall be improved falls to the discretion of its masters. I aim to be helpful! :)

[Ashley Cawley]

Apologies chaps, just caught this thread! - Yes obviously all sorted now for Whiskey87 :)

Martin was right - Our anti-spam system really didn't like something about Whiskey87 registering, it checks your username, email-address & IP Address, should anything be known to the database as a spammer it will reject it, like Martin said the rate of false-positives is fairly slim (to date it's stopped 4,159 spammers from registering & has only wrongly identified 3 legitimate people, so that's not bad going).

We will be working on making it more friendly during the rare instance where it rejects someone, however unfortunately it's not something that can be done quickly (requires re-coding). Thanks for your patience and understanding.

[Whiskey87]

I would argue that it has probably stopped more legitimate people, they just never correct the issue with their registration (if Mike didn't refer me and I just happened across this board by chance, not really knowing what goodies lay inside, I'd probably be in the same boat) or voice their concerns in here. ;)

That said, I've seen what those ad/spam-bots can do to an unsecured forum system - it's a bloody nightmare to stay on top of.

[CanadianMike]

Haven't heard any more complaints about it over on ASC, but seems only a couple or three signed up. Oh well, there are enough Canucks on here now as it is. Lol

[Ashley Cawley]

I would argue that it has probably stopped more legitimate people, they just never correct the issue with their registration...
Your probably right - that's why we will be working to re-engineer the program to give a more friendly response that includes a direct email contact to me so I can manually create them an account quickly.


... and I just happened across this board by chance, not really knowing what goodies lay inside,...The great thing is about NaturalBushcraft - everything is open & available to all. All posts, videos & articles need no registration to access, however obviously a registration is needed if you wish to participate in the community :)

[Whiskey87]

Ah, I didn't know that! My first course of action when introduced to a new forum is always the creation of an account, as most sites aren't so open-policy (especially the ones of a more survivalist flavour).