Posting restirctions

[Steve Fabian]

I would suggest that posting in any manner to any of the JPsoft NGs be
restricted to approved members. This would delay only the completion of
signing up. Instead of automatic approval from the web server, it would have
to go through an individual at JPsoft, once for each person. Possibly it
could be combined for purchasers with the sending of registration keys
(i.e., provide a preapproved original username/password in the same email,
which the user can use to sign in to the registration page, and then select
a new username and password), to minimized workload on JPsoft personnel.
--
Steve

 

[rconn]

Steve Fábián wrote:

> I would suggest that posting in any manner to any of the JPsoft NGs be
> restricted to approved members. This would delay only the completion of
> signing up. Instead of automatic approval from the web server, it would
> have
> to go through an individual at JPsoft, once for each person. Possibly it
> could be combined for purchasers with the sending of registration keys
> (i.e., provide a preapproved original username/password in the same email,
> which the user can use to sign in to the registration page, and then select
> a new username and password), to minimized workload on JPsoft personnel.

I had temporarily turned off the image verification so one of our blind
users could register. During those few minutes a couple of dozen bots
registered fake usernames and tried dumping spam into the forums. (Most
of them didn't succeed, and none succeeded more than once.) Now that
that one user is registered, I've turned the image verification on again.

I don't like the idea of forcing an additional verification step because
(1) it creates extra work for us without any benefit, since (2) there's
no way of telling which is a fake name created by a bot or spammer and
which is just a dumb name created by a user :-) , and (3) it discourages
non-regular forum members from visiting the forum to ask a question.

Rex Conn
JP Software