Forum Registration - Free E-mails - Change Coming!

[TazKristi]

I just wanted to post this so it can be seen both by folks who aren't yet registered and also for those of you who are.

First a little info. Most everyone knows that our Forum registration does not allow for e-mail addresses from free providers. The filter in place to make that happen has over 170K ISPs listed, if printed it's a list over 36 pages long. Even with that filter we are still seeing new ISPs pop up all the time.

The forum currently receives anywhere from 50-100 new registrations per week from members with ISPs not on that list. So, you can imagine the volume of manual registration requests that I get.

It's no secret that I haven't been able to keep up with the demand for new registrations on the forum in addition to my "day job" here. So, I am going to remove the filter that applies to free ISPs. I will be doing that sometime tomorrow afternoon.

This is really a heads-up for a few reasons. (1) If you are not yet registered because you have a free ISP you will be able to register very soon. (2) If you are registered and wish to update your e-mail address to one from a free ISP you will be able to do that on your own, very soon. (3) This last one is a big one... removing the filter and opening that "gate" may bring spam to our boards. I have every tool that is available to us through VBulletin in place to help combat that from happening. However the only magic silver bullet is the filter and the manual registrations that I've been doing for the past 5 years.

If you see spam on the forum, PLEASE do NOT reply, do NOT quote the post, do NOT click on any links. PLEASE DO click the "Report Post" icon (red triangle) in the top right corner of the post. The post will be deleted and the "Member" banned as quickly as possible.

If we see a major influx of spam I will have to consider reinstating the filter. I'm hoping that won't be the case. We do honestly value each and every one of you who spend time with us on our Forum. We don't have anything against free e-mail providers or the people who use them.

Please bear with me as we go through this transition. Apologies for the long-winded post, but I felt ya'll deserved a full explanation.

Thanx much!

[unit]

Thanks for the info.

[Donut]

Sounds reasonable. I was a moderator on a forum at one time and we were having several spam postings per day, it was kind of annoying.

Good luck with the change!

[LorenzoL]

I think it is a reasonable decision considering that very few people actually use their ISP's e-mail service. Not accepting Yahoo! or Gmail was a little like rejecting incoming phone calls from cell phones... The times are changing and nowhere as fast as in the tech world.

[FIMS]

I think it is a reasonable decision considering that very few people actually use their ISP's e-mail service. Not accepting Yahoo! or Gmail was a little like rejecting incoming phone calls from cell phones... The times are changing and nowhere as fast as in the tech world.

True, but I do like the security of using proper ISP's. Sort of keeps the spam out.

When spam is bad, it shuts down forums.

[Agent Starling]

Glad to hear this news, but I can't help thinking that Pandora's box is about to open...I hope I am wrong!! :D

Agent Starling

[ChapmanPreferred]

As others have already stated, thank you for the advanced warning.

[ozspyder]

Thanks Kristi,

I am currently using one of those services. I find that with a lot of my own clients who are very mobile they tend to change emails all the time and the only way they tell me that they can have a semblence of 'identity' is to have an email address with someone like Yaho, Hotmail, or GMail etc and that way they are independent of any ISP and can access their emails from anywhere in the world if they don't own a home or an internet service.

I hope for everyone that the spambots stay the **** away and I am certain we will all do our part in self-moderation as well as legitimately reporting posts to you :)

[HotSoup]

I really doubt theres going to be a large influx of spam. Other knife forums function perfectly well with no filters like this, and I've never seen spam.

Good move Kristi.

[ChrisR]

Thanks fro the heads-up Kristi. I think removing the filters is probably going to be good for the average person who wants to join. I admin another forum and we block out all Russian free email providers and that has cut down quite a lot of the automated/spam registrations.

Probably the only way to improve registration-approval times and jumping on the spam-posts is to recruit more admins. I know Spyderco probably want to maintain control over the forum and I don't know what flexibility the vBulletin software gives you but perhaps it might be time to allow some of the senior forum contributors to become junior-admins and give them restricted rights to block spammer and delete/lock threads? I should add that I'd like to rule myself *out* of that role - my life is complicated enough as it is :D

[Mr Blonde]

Sounds reasonable. Good luck with the upgrade and spam fighting. An alternative could be to enlist a few extra mods, to help with the 'manual labor' of processing registrations and such. I know I wouldn't mind spending some time each week to help this forum with some admin tasks.

Wouter

[Simple Man]

Sounds like a good plan, thanks for the heads-up.

All you can do it try it and find out, then go from there.

[tonydahose]

An alternative could be to enlist a few extra mods, to help with the 'manual labor' of processing registrations and such. I know I wouldn't mind spending some time each week to help this forum with some admin tasks.

Wouter

i 2nd that Kristi, i am sure there are some of us on here alot more than you are with your schedule. I am a mod on BST, if you need a hand just let me know. We could just deal with the blatant SPAM and let you deal with the threads that get out of hand once in awhile.

[bdbender]

It's interesting what our perceptions about threats are. Several people are on here today congratulating NH on their new knife law. Now that is great and fits right in with the "live free or die" state (I lived just over the border in Vermont for 18 years). In addition, some of these folks also seem to like NH for its libertarian traditions in general.

I find this ironic in an era when IMHO there is relatively little restriction in this country on knives and a real threat from personal use of internet freebots. If you want big brother to know as much as he can about you, use gmail or yahoo or one of the other big free ones. They collect and use all of the demographic data they see flowing past from their email traffic. Not about you personally, but about demographic trends down to gnat's behind levels, meaning you and others who act just like you, which is just as intrusive.

Anyway, I have been using softhome.net for years, paying $15 per year for the privilege, and have had no problems. They have a pretty good set of spam filters that you can set yourself. And they stay with you when you move. So I can recommend them as one of many possible solutions to the freebot alternative.

[TazKristi]

The filter has been officially removed. If I had a fingers crossed smiley I'd use it.

[Redeye]

Thanks TazKristi, I've had my nose pressed up against the window of this forum like a kid outside a sweet-store for months - it's great to be able to finally join.

I have one small suggestion; there could be a big influx of new people in the next few weeks, making one thread for new members to introduce themselves could be helpful.

[Bento Box Shop]

Thank you, Kristi. :)

:spyder:

[spyderHS08]

sounds good thanks for the heads up kristi!

[dialex]

Hi Kristi. Hopefully this measure will make things easier for you. Good luck.
Thank you for your presence here.

[SecSpyral]

there will be more spam but i don't think it will be crazy. If it turns out there's a problem you can always choose a few loyal forum members to do some light moderation as well. This is a good change I do everything through gmail :)