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New registrations disabled...

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 10:10 pm
by skater
Due to spammer activity, we've disabled new registrations. If you are new to the site, interested in the B190, and want an account, please email me at skater@b190.com and I'll get it set up manually. Please provide a username that you would like to use on the site.

Thanks.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2014 11:42 pm
by Alaskan
Perfect....I deleted 14 last night and I see you must have done at least that many today...

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2014 8:18 am
by skater
Alaskan wrote:Perfect....I deleted 14 last night and I see you must have done at least that many today...
Hundreds...easily. It's been a mess.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2014 6:02 pm
by lido14co
Thanks for clearing up the big mess. I had 497 unread messages!


Cliff

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 9:10 pm
by Lou0403
Looks like Best Price for Pills is another one, but in English.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 10:23 pm
by skater
Lou0403 wrote:Looks like Best Price for Pills is another one, but in English.
Thanks - I kill the posts (and the accounts) as I see them, and I try to check in several times a day. Theoretically I could go through every account and try to guess whether it's legitimate, but it takes a LONG time.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:08 pm
by Kentuckian
Skater, We really hate that you have to spend your time on such nonsense. We really appreciate all your hard work to keep the B190 site the helpful orderly place that it is!

Thank you!

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 8:38 am
by skater
Kentuckian wrote:Skater, We really hate that you have to spend your time on such nonsense. We really appreciate all your hard work to keep the B190 site the helpful orderly place that it is!
Thanks. Believe me, I don't want to disable new registrations, because it makes that much more work for me and slows it down for new people as well. Unfortunately, it seems like the best way to halt a spam attack - prevent them from registering new accounts. On top of that issue, the website of the forum software itself was hacked and down while the attack was going on, so looking for other/better solutions wasn't an option either. Frustrating, to say the least.

I can set registrations to "approval required" which reduces the workload on my end (though still requiring more time), but spammers can still register accounts, put in URLs in their profiles to spam sites, and - as I said above - it's not always possible to distinguish legitimate accounts from spammers, and I hate to delete an account that was legitimate.

So, I just want to apologize to any legitimate users trying to register for the site - spammers are making it kind of a mess.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 9:39 am
by nvestysly
skater, it's been a while since I registered so I don't remember the information I supplied in order to obtain an account. I presume it's a valid email so a token/id code can be sent or some sort of link to follow to complete the registration.

Regardless, is it possible to add a text field requiring the person requesting registration to explain why they want to join the site? I'm guessing many spammers wouldn't take time to write a short bio or essay on the merits of RVing or the repairs they need to perform on their van, etc. If this is a possibility, maybe it would be an additional method of screening the registrants.

Good Luck! It's a great web site and we all appreciate the effort you and others put in to maintain it.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:00 pm
by skater
nvestysly wrote:skater, it's been a while since I registered so I don't remember the information I supplied in order to obtain an account. I presume it's a valid email so a token/id code can be sent or some sort of link to follow to complete the registration.
Pretty much, yep.
Regardless, is it possible to add a text field requiring the person requesting registration to explain why they want to join the site? I'm guessing many spammers wouldn't take time to write a short bio or essay on the merits of RVing or the repairs they need to perform on their van, etc. If this is a possibility, maybe it would be an additional method of screening the registrants.
Good idea. I'll look into that. It would require a software modification to accomplish, so if the website that hosts the forum software is finally back maybe I can find something now.

Re: New registrations disabled...

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 8:17 am
by skater
Ugh! I'm sorry, everyone. I had an issue with my email that was preventing me from getting the messages from people trying to register!

I just now saw them, back to mid-March. I'll get those in as soon as I can. Sorry again!