admin
02-24-2010, 12:52 PM
Because we've had severe trouble in the past with spammers, trolls, and other nasty folk, we decided to add some hoops to the membership process to discourage them from trying to register and post.
The first hoop is validation. All new registrations must be approved and all must have a traceable email address. Once approved (Blue Stars), members can do almost everything, including using the chat room and posting everywhere except the bottom three boards. Those are restricted to Confirmed members. (Green Stars)
Why?
Because we wanted to discourage people who are only interested in politics and such. This is a how-to, homesteading and self-reliance website and Forum. We want to attract people who are primarily interested in those areas and for whom politics is secondary.
The Forum also requires new members to answer a question each time they post. We know it's annoying, but it's the very best way to stop spam bots dead in their tracks, and discourage human spammers, should one manage to find its way in.
Once you are Confirmed the questions will stop.
So how do you get confirmed?
By participating in the non-political boards for awhile. While we cannot say exactly how long and how often you'll have to post, we can say that if you visit regularly and participate, it should not take more than a couple of weeks to get Confirmed.
It is an automated process, so once the Forum detects that you have satisfied both the time and post count minimums, it will automatically promote you and the bottom three boards will be open to you for posting.
We're sorry we had to institute these security measures, but we are determined to protect the Forum and the membership and to avoid a repeat of the problems we've had in the past.
We appreciate your understanding.
BHM
The first hoop is validation. All new registrations must be approved and all must have a traceable email address. Once approved (Blue Stars), members can do almost everything, including using the chat room and posting everywhere except the bottom three boards. Those are restricted to Confirmed members. (Green Stars)
Why?
Because we wanted to discourage people who are only interested in politics and such. This is a how-to, homesteading and self-reliance website and Forum. We want to attract people who are primarily interested in those areas and for whom politics is secondary.
The Forum also requires new members to answer a question each time they post. We know it's annoying, but it's the very best way to stop spam bots dead in their tracks, and discourage human spammers, should one manage to find its way in.
Once you are Confirmed the questions will stop.
So how do you get confirmed?
By participating in the non-political boards for awhile. While we cannot say exactly how long and how often you'll have to post, we can say that if you visit regularly and participate, it should not take more than a couple of weeks to get Confirmed.
It is an automated process, so once the Forum detects that you have satisfied both the time and post count minimums, it will automatically promote you and the bottom three boards will be open to you for posting.
We're sorry we had to institute these security measures, but we are determined to protect the Forum and the membership and to avoid a repeat of the problems we've had in the past.
We appreciate your understanding.
BHM