How plain do I need to make it?

[electra225]

We have a notice posted in the bulletin board at the top of the index page about new members being required to post their locations to have access to the forum. Yet, almost every time, we have to remind new members to post their location. Frankly, I'm getting tired of doing that. Every forum to which I belong requires members to post their location in their user profile. Do they all have trouble with this? I post at the top of the index page IN BIG RED LETTERS, yet still we have to remind new members to post their location. You may notice my responses to this becoming more terse and more direct. I would rather discourage someone from participating in the forum than to have a spambot get their tentacles in our forum. The moderators and I fight these people every day. There are "tells" we use to identify them. They use made-up email address with multiple letters that are configured as to be hard to type accurately. They use a certain numbers of letters in their usernames. They are pests, vermin whose only purpose is to inflate our membership roster and create havoc for the rest of us. I ban usernames, email address and IP address so these pests won't post on the forum. So far, so good at keeping real trouble off the forum. It is a never-ending job. I hope those of you who support the forum will understand our motivation and won't be concerned if we "cut them off at the knees" occasionally. Thank you for your understanding and support.

[stbasil]

So I guess there's no way to make the location field to be "required" in the forum software?

Thanks for all your work on managing the forum!

[electra225]

Rrading and agreeing to the rules is required before you can register. A part of the registration process Thank you for your participation and support!...

[19&41]

Can one message the prospective member that their postings will begin to appear after the location requirement is met? (This is not a rhetorical question.)

[William]

I think, if the new member provided an email address that could be accomplished. Not sure if a PM would work, I think that would depend on how Greg zaps them.

[stbasil]

What I mean by "required" is that the registration process will not advance if that field is left blank. I experience this all the time when registering for stuff, not sure if the forum software has that option for that field. Of course, someone could just put gibberish in there....

[electra225]

When we disapprove a post from a new member due to not posting a location, there is a box we can check that will let us advise the member that his post has been disapproved and why. It sends him a notification via the forum software.

Without going into a long, boring diatribe on PhPBB forum software, let me say that this is the most popular forum software there is. It is open source, which means anybody can contribute to it, bad guys included. It is nearly impossible for it to be secure for that reason. This particular software is developed and maintained by volunteers, so there is no commercial reason to develop and offer improvements. Spammers have a heyday with it. We have a HUGE spambot issue on our little forum, I can only imagine what the big forums put up with. We use version 3.3 and the new version 4.0 was recently introduced. I see very little improvement, both in security and features from the older version.

There is a plan in place to reformat this forum. This process has taken longer than I had hoped, partly due to a stipulation I put into the deal. It has to be 100% spambot-free and 100% connection friendly from the jump. Three years ago, when we rehosted the forum, we lost/aggravated members and I almost lost a moderator due to the fact members were having connection issues. I want none of that this round. I am used to the spambots and have gotten by with an ugly home page and missing features this long, members are used to it, but if we upset the apple cart and make it hard for members to access the forum just so we can make it harder for spambots, it won't be worth it to me.

I'm not at liberty to reveal details, but it will still be a bulletin board forum, but I want some "wow". I'd like a header where the image can be changed, preferably monthly and with photos members provide and share with the forum. Then other little niceties that no other forum has, but that the members would like. It is allegedly going to be powered by forum software that most any website designer would be familiar with, so if we lose our current computer guru, we won't be stuck like we are with the current software. The only technical help available for PhPBB is offshore, those "gig" people. No web designer wants to mess with it. I have no idea why. They just don't like open source software. Like putting a Chevy school bus engine in a Rolls-Royce (I've done that!). It makes a "luxury" forum that almost any IT or website designer can work with.

Security is a big deal. All kinds of spammers and ne'er-do-wells out there to mess up something someone worked hard for. We have to know who is on our forum. I approved a new member's post the other day after the moderators had passed. I think it was a sneaky spambot. I'm sorry to have to be such a putz when it comes to locations, but we don't have any choice. Our two moderators have noses like bloodhounds when it comes to spambots. These guys deserve so much credit for helping keep our forum safe I'll never be able to express my gratitude for all their hard work. I wanted to give a new member the benefit of the doubt, so I approved a post even though they had not posted their location. That won't happen again. No location posted, you don't post on the forum. Period...

Toa answer a question. The current software does not require a location at registration. A requirement of the registration process with a new format would be that location is required and also a legitimate email address that will actually work. Currently, an issue we are having with spambots is that there are "robo-spammers" all shooting memberships from a common IP and email address. The new software will root these out and block them.

Thank you all for your understanding and for your support of the forum.

[electra225]

I made a snarky post which was unnecessary and not in keeping with the culture of this forum. I let my emotions take control of my better judgment. I'm sorry for that.

I will say that we have a new member who has not posted his location and has tried to post three times. There is a good chance he won't be on this forum.