Need to register

Hello,

I just joined the forum, but almost didn’t because of the need to register. I don’t know, but I guess there will be some people that are discouraged by the need to first give an e-mail adress than have to activate it then to login. Perhaps you should reconsider making the first steps easier.

BTW: nice forum!

Bob

Thanks – and sorry for the added hassle.

I think there’s a way to turn on anonymous posting – or even sign-ups without validation – but that’s almost always a huge mistake for web-boards. It’s too easy to get spammed. What I’ve found is that privately-hosted web boards pretty much have to require some kind of account sign-up process. It’s not even just to help curb spam, but because you’re running a server that’s allowing visitors and it’s nice to know at least a little about who’s using your system. :slight_smile:

Rioshin – what has your experience been with easier sign-ups?

Well, easier sign-ups definitely mean spam on the boards. I’m an administrator at another forum, as well, and during the time it ran with anonymous postings or easy registrations, the amount of XXX-links were huge - had to spend almost a full working day a week to remove all the spam postings. So we went with this kind of registration there, as well, and disallowed anonymous posts. No problems anymore. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the answers. I didn’t know that spam was a problem on web boards.

Bob

Yeah, it’s bad enough at another forum I run that I’ve actually turned on admin validation. That means users can’t even post until I verify and validate them. Even then, they spam. They sign up with crazy links in their profiles (which actually makes them easier to spot from the real users).

Yes more and more sites are having to go over to having those bits where you have to type in some characters when you post, just to stop the automatic spamming. It is often possible to reduce the required input when signing up to a minimum.

These are called CAPTCHA. They are beginning to be superceded by asking a simple question of the person registering (i.e. what colour is a white horse? white, red, purple) which actually requires an answer. The CAPTCHA can be beaten.