Some Changes In Registration

[Henry]

Yesterday and last night I started to get some Registrations that weren't legitimate for the forum, so I have made some changes.  Not sure if you are aware, but there are what they call Bots that go roaming around the Internet and register themselves on forums and then place ads there.  One yesterday was for free software and of course the ever popular Viagra and Cialis along with others.

I thought of trying to make they little graphic you have to read more difficult to read as the Bots have trouble with those, but when I made it a little more difficult, I couldn't read it myself.

What will happen now is that I will be sent a note when you want to register and I will have to approve it.  It seems to be the easiest way to stop unwanted registrations.  If some look questionable, hopefully nobody will mind if I send them a note and ask them a question or two.

[Mike Raburn]

I created a new area in a forum I have and forgot to check one box in the security settings.
We were deluged with Bot spams like crazy within a 12 hour period.

We also now have made it so one of us admins have to authorize a new user.

There is some wild stuff out there that is for sure.

[Henry]

The new method where I personally have to approve all new registrations seems to be working.  Out of 16 new registrations yesterday, I found only one that I felt was legitimate, so rejected all of the others.  Hopefully I am not rejecting any valid registrations, so if any of you hear of anyone trying to register that gets rejected, please encourage them to send me a personal email at:  vtgrandpa@yahoo.com

[fletchtb]

I seem to remember when I registered to become a member of your site, that you emailed me to check what my relationship to the town of Fairfax was. So are you now just reverting back to an old policy or are you doing even more to make sure the bots don't take over???

[Henry]

Right now and most likely from now on, no registration will go through unless I manually approve it, so I am putting in extra precautions.  We have a good group on the forum and I would like to keep it that way.