using gmail/yahoo account to register

[homemade]

Is there some reason why you can't use a gmail/yahoo mail account to register for this site? I hate having to use my email address from work for personal stuff - this was the route I had to take to register...

any help?

[chrismartin]

Free email accounts are a huge source of SPAM.
automated systems will create gmail/yahoo accounts, use those email addresses to register with a bunch of forums and start SPAMing away.

[silencertalk]

It appears that I was unable to register because you don't like yahoo e-mail. Well I dislike like g-mail, where they keep everything forever, and hot mail because of a dislike for Microsoft so it appears we are at an impasse.

If you dislike Yahoo mail then say so up front on the registration page, don't waste my time or yours.

I get email like this from the Yahoo email ghetto.

[Twinsen]

I do Yahoo email too. I won't support Google, and I won't use hotmail because it's terrible.

[Maser]

While not allowing them "free" email accounts is an easy way to eliminate some spammers/bots, there lies one main problem and that is for those who use AOL as their ISP because you are given an AOL email to use and that's considered a "free" email account too. I ran into that same problem when I was using AOL and wanted to join BARFCOM.

[fstbk65]

I had to sign up using my Dad's email from his house. It's frustrating but I understand why it's done. What if we could switch our contact email to our hotmail, gmail, etc after getting an account established?

[silencertalk]

I tried an experiment and allowed gmail. Today someone from gmail posted 250 spams on the site. It takes time to remove those. So I re-banned gmail.

[warjunky1428]

I'm glad gmail worked when i registered.

[Bugzy]

I tried an experiment and allowed gmail. Today someone from gmail posted 250 spams on the site. It takes time to remove those. So I re-banned gmail.

When I logged in earlier there were 6 pages of that mess.

Glad to know it was your hand on the trigger.

[bakerjw]

I tried an experiment and allowed gmail. Today someone from gmail posted 250 spams on the site. It takes time to remove those. So I re-banned gmail.

Ah... So therein lies the answer for last nights "incident".

Yep. I can certainly vouch for how much effort can be involved in cleaning out that many spam posts.

[wakerider017]

You could add a plugin that filters out spammers...
For instance a question verification in order to complete registration.

Ex: Please name one suppressor manufacturer.

I've done this before and it DRAMATICALLY reduces spam. I am talking like 99% reduction.
Just choose a question that requires a little thought, but is easy enough to answer for any user that actually wants to use this site for its intended purposes.


Also, I haven't used phpbb in a while, but isn't there a feature to delete all posts by a user with one click? (In my vb sites it was one click to delete all posts and one click to ban).

[bakerjw]

isn't there a feature to delete all posts by a user with one click?

Depends on the level of the moderator.

[silencertalk]

I wish I had a button which would:

1. Delete the username.
2. Delete all of their posts.
3. Ban their email.
4. Ban their IP.

But I don't. It is especially hard when I am at the Shot Show on an iPhone and see a new spammer with 250 posts knowing I have no computer.

[bakerjw]

No complaining from the shot show!

[wakerider017]

I wish I had a button which would:

1. Delete the username.
2. Delete all of their posts.
3. Ban their email.
4. Ban their IP.

But I don't. It is especially hard when I am at the Shot Show on an iPhone and see a new spammer with 250 posts knowing I have no computer.

I'll have to look into that and see if there isn't a solution for that. Be careful with banning IP's though. I'm not an expert about the infrastructure of networks or anything of the sort, but I ran into a situation before where an ISP was recycling IP's. Banned an IP which caused other users to be affected as well.

LOL @ having to do it from your iphone.. That must suck!

& bakerjw. I'm pretty sure he is an admin which is the highest level.

[bakerjw]

Ya think?

[bp78]

I registered with a secondary address I rarely check.

Post-registration confirmation I'm still unable to set my profile to my gmail address. Is there any way I'm now registered that I can switch my profile to my gmail address for subscription emails?

Thanks.

[silencertalk]

No, only if I enable it for everyone.

[chrismartin]

I registered with a secondary address I rarely check.

Post-registration confirmation I'm still unable to set my profile to my gmail address. Is there any way I'm now registered that I can switch my profile to my gmail address for subscription emails?

Thanks.

You can usually set up an auto forward on the seldom used account to forward all email to your primary account.
Gmail can also download email from other accounts.
Click "Settings"
Accounts tab
Then fill out the info for "Get mail from other accounts" (must be POP3)

[Shamrock-MP]

My AKO email will be frozen next year and I do not have an alternate email address other than gmail/yahoo. I only opened the gmail because I thought it would grant me access to this forum(I do not like to use AKO for non-military actions but is worth it). Will my account here be frozen when my AKO access is terminated? Can you give some examples of other acceptable email? I do not know about email structure, am lucky to know how to send/receive a message.

[Libertarian_Geek]

I wish I had a button which would:

1. Delete the username.
2. Delete all of their posts.
3. Ban their email.
4. Ban their IP.

But I don't. It is especially hard when I am at the Shot Show on an iPhone and see a new spammer with 250 posts knowing I have no computer.

1-3 are good.. #4 would only help as a "snooze", otherwise, your IP Blacklist will grow huge over time (with no upper limit) and would get to the point where it starts impacting non spamming users, since IP addresses often get recycled within the ISP's pool of IP addresses. It wouldn't necessarily be effective to stop a spammer, since they could just refresh their IP, or jump to another infected host.

[silencertalk]

Hey, I once turned off a continent to stop one person.

[usmcvet0331]

Hey, I once turned off a continent to stop one person.

Which one. That sounds like a good story.