This site's registration process...

[PhilEndecott]

Dear All,

I won't have anything technical to say for a while since I have to wait for a couple of months for a board.  But in the meantime I have two questions about this site's registration process:

1. Why do I have to specify my date of birth and gender?

2. Why does it take a week to get approved?

I've used many forums, mailing lists, etc. over the years, and I even run one myself, and this is not how others function.  It doesn't give a great welcome to people to be faced with these two issues.

Regards,  Phil.

[mdc]

Just FYI, I raised this internally and it's been noted and they're going to work on resolving this.

[clay_cowgill]

I'll pile on with a "me too" as far as registering.  Took a full week for my application to be approved as well-- the only reason I was trying to post was because I found the R199 issue while working with Jonathan and wanted to let everyone know.

There's no shortage of forums on the net that are *much* larger than this that don't take a week to register and yet don't have spam problems either...

The long wait is pretty annoying when you find a forum to solve a problem you have "right now" and then have to wait a week just to post!

But, hey, I'm just being the uppity homeless guy complaining about something that's free. ;-)

[PhilEndecott]

Hi Jim,

I'm aware of the spam problems.  I run a forum myself.

I don't see how asking for age and gender help to distinguish me from spammers, though.  And taking a week to approve me is not my idea of "well maintained".

[JimDonelson]

One possible answer:

These days forums and boards get hammered with spam. Fake people register an put up all kind of things, and the admin has to constantly spend time on this.

This forum is ad free and well maintained, probably by "volunteers".