Is the site new member unfriendly?

**Wired** · 2012-Jun-01 15:05

Originally spoken by alphax

It's been years since I registered, so I assume that an actual person is reading these answers to filter the spambots, right?

Yep, that would be yours truly. I agree the wording on the reg form is a little prefunctory but registrants need only write a few words, it doesent need to be an essay. For example in the "what will you contribute", a mere "My experience of rubber" would suffice. In 4 or 5 months I havent excluded anyone apart from one suspected spammer based on the content of the reg form so it isnt that important really. But yeah, the wording could do with some work.

**Observer** · 2012-Jun-02 04:24

Originally spoken by Wired

Yep, that would be yours truly. I agree the wording on the reg form is a little prefunctory but registrants need only write a few words, it doesent need to be an essay. For example in the "what will you contribute", a mere "My experience of rubber" would suffice. In 4 or 5 months I havent excluded anyone apart from one suspected spammer based on the content of the reg form so it isnt that important really. But yeah, the wording could do with some work.

I do have to say the site seems to be very good at keeping spammers at bay, so that's not a bad thing IMO.

**Wired** · 2012-Jun-04 23:55

Cheers Obs! Spammers are my favorite prey, got a nice two point buck leering down at me from above the fireplace.

See below for a visual representation of what we do to spammers,

**Jethro** · 2012-Jun-05 20:23

I would love to respond to the original question, "Is the site new member unfriendly?". As a newer member I would answer "no". I've never seen a friendlier group of people who have a passion and want to commune about this passion. As to the questions on the registration, I think they were worded perfectly. I understood that this is a serious site for people with a serious love of rubber.

**Wired** · 2012-Sep-06 23:29

Thank you Jethro, most kind.

**Wired** · 2012-Sep-06 23:31

If people are finding the registration process complex, taking a look at recent events may go some way to justifying the level of input that we require from new registrants.

It appears that spambots have reached a new level of efficiency and are able to bypass the "CAPTCHA" system and automatically register as a new member. Now then, I check and read every new registration and fortunately these attempts stick out like a sore thumb due to their formatting and text input. But without the three boxes "Why do you want to join" "What will you contribute" and ""How did you find out about IAR" it would be impossible for me to differentiate legitimate registrants from potential spammers. Just to put the level of attempted spamming into context I have deleted approx 30 - 40 spurious new registrations in the past few days alone.

Keeping the forums free of spam is something we take very seriously, with good reason. For more information please see,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_spam

Nearly all the spammers are using GMail addresses and as far as we know, there is no way to combat this and a blanket ban on GMail addy's is out of the question. So, if you are registering with a GMail or other webmail address its important to at least enter some relevant details into those three boxes so I know you arent a spammer, capiche.

I hope that this goes some way to explaining the reasons for the three boxes.

Cheers,

Wired.

**Brat** · 2012-Sep-07 18:21

I'm a new member and believe the site is fairly easy to join. The forms seem to work well and are of a good design

**Wired** · 2012-Sep-08 13:22

Thanks Brat and welcome to Rubberist.net, yeah, it all seems no more complex than other sites and you definitely get more bang for yer buck here.

Just deleted 15 more spammers in the last two days, those 3 boxes are staying right where they are.