New Account Registration

[rocky]

I've changed the settings for new account registrations, so you no longer need admin approval to activate your account.

The upside of this is that anyone who has been forced to lurk up till now can open an account and get involved in discussions.

The downside is that we may see some bots trying to advertise dodgy pharmaceuticals or worse. I'll do my best to keep an eye on this and delete posts but can't be watching 24/7, so please don't open anything that looks suspicious.
If the bots get as bad as they were previously we'll have to go back to restrictions on new accounts again, so take this opportunity to open an account while you can.

[spitalfields]

Many thanks for trying this experiment, but looks like it will have to be short lived

Hopefully someone will be able to come up with a viable solution. I use several phpbb forums and have never known such a spam problem, so there probably is a solution, but unfortunately I don't know enough about the technicalities...

[rocky]

Yeah it's pretty bad. I'll persevere for another couple of day.

[Scott]

It really should be possible to weed out the vast majority of spam registrations automatically - a simple Q&A captcha along the lines of "what does a brown dot represent on an orienteering map?" would probably do the trick, as would switching to recaptcha. I'd definitely encourage you to take MattP up on the offer of updating and securing the forum.

[NORLeanne]

I've just reregistered as my old account didn't work, and when I tried to get new password, daid I wasn't a member! Glad to be back

[Freefall]

Some of these dodgy pharmaceuticals might be just what I need to find the small brown dots when orienteering

[Arnold]

All these new people are making me dizzy. After many years I'd finally figured out who was who (more or less) and now I need to start from scratch!

[rocky]

a simple Q&A captcha along the lines of "what does a brown dot represent on an orienteering map?" would probably do the trick

Thanks Scott, my BO seems to be scaring off the bots for now.
I've given Brooner a prod and he's thinking about what changes/upgrades are appropriate longer term.

[babs f]

My husband has been trying to register so that he can make his own comparisons between the timescales of JK results and Brexit, but when he does, it says that it has sent him an email, but he never gets it. Help please.

[DieselDragon]

Hi everyone!
Just in case anyone was lurking & wondering if Nopesport signups are working, they do appear to be as I've managed to join today. If it looks like the activation e-mail doesn't arrive remember to check your spam folders, as that's where mine ended up in Google Mail.

I've changed the settings for new account registrations, so you no longer need admin approval to activate your account.
The upside of this is that anyone who has been forced to lurk up till now can open an account and get involved in discussions.

Many thanks for that Rocky! I imagine you've been having a lot of issues with bots (One managed to slip through - Check post #179135) but the present arrangement means genuine humans can still join the discussion without waiting around and that's very much appreciated!

Anyways...I just wanted to post here to let any other lurkers know that signups are indeed working, so if anyone's been trying to join but not having much luck now might be a good time to have another go. Remember: Always check the spam folder!