Is your name on this list?

[Webmaster]

At the time of registration for this forum, everyone is advised of a confirmation e-mail that will be sent to the e-mail address supplied during the registration procedure. That confirmation e-mail contains a link that each new member must click on, in order to complete the registration process and fully activate their account's permissions on the forum.

Without clicking on that link, the forum permissions are not much different than an unregistered visitor would have.

We try to warn people about registering with an e-mail account with one of the free e-mail services (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.), as these providers will often shunt the confirmation e-mails off into a junk folder, never to be seen again. And without clicking on the link in that e-mail, these new members cannot post in the forums, cannot use the Private Messaging system, cannot set up blogs, cannot use the photo gallery, cannot upload avatars, etc.

We realize many people will register for a forum, just to discover if there is something else to be seen as a member and when they realize there is not, they leave the forum to never return. There are some that register, fail to
confirm their e-mail address, see they have nearly zero forum privileges and leave to never return. There are those that register, never confirm their e-mails and cannot understand why they have no privileges, but continue to visit the forum anyway.

We want each new member to complete the registration process, so they can fully participate in the forums, but doesn't always happen.

We currently have sixteen members that have yet to confirm their e-mail addresses. Several of these members registered months ago and have never returned. We are going to start a process of pruning these members from the database after 60 days of inactivity, so if you see your registered username in red below, action needs to be taken within the next 72 hours. For those usernames not in red, this is a reminder that you need to verify that e-mail address with us, otherwise you will find your own account being pruned at some point in the future.

We want to make clear that we are not going to be pruning fully-registered members from our database, just those that have failed to complete their registration process.

425Olds registered 1/03/07, last active 1/03/07 - deleted 11/23/07
Baxter registered 9/28/07, last active 9/28/07 - deleted 01/10/08
boogyboogies registered 7/03/07, last active 7/03/07 - deleted 11/23/07
brecht63 registered 9/16/07, last active 9/28/07 - deleted 01/10/08
bucketfan registered 12/06/06, last active 12/06/06 - deleted 11/23/07
Dano registered 11/18/07, last active 11/18/07
DaveBerkey registered 1/13/07, last active 4/02/07 - deleted 11/23/07
glioce registered 1/27/07, last active 1/27/07 - deleted 11/23/07
rudedudes23t registered 1/08/07, last active 1/08/07 - deleted 11/23/07
Stubbmaster registered 10/28/07, last active 10/29/07 - deleted 01/10/08
trekjensen registered 7/22/07, last active 7/22/07 - deleted 11/23/07

Again, if you see your name in red, you need to click on the Contact Us link, located at the bottom of every forum page before Friday, 11/23/07. Give us your registered username and the e-mail account you used to register and we will manually activate your account. If we do not hear from you prior to that time, your account will be removed and you need to register a new account if you decide to participate on our forums.

For those names in black, we are still awaiting e-mail confirmation from you. If you are having difficulty with the confirmation process, use the Contact Us form for assistance, as mentioned in the paragraph above. Otherwise, your account will be dropped from our database, 60 days after your last recorded forum activity.

We do recognize members will not be checking in here every day, every week, or even every month. However, if a member has failed to complete the registration process and has not logged into the forum for 60 days or more, then we do not feel obligated to carry that account in the database.

 

[Webmaster]

The user accounts listed in red above have been deleted. If you registered one of those accounts and have now decided you want to participate on these forums, you will be required to register a second time.

Please note - you are going to be required to confirm your registered e-mail address to complete the registration process, so we strongly recommend against using a free e-mail address such as Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.

We will be regularly pruning unconfirmed registrations over 60 days from the database.

 

[Webmaster]

A few more inactive and uncompleted registrations have been deleted.

We're still seeing some newer registrations that are incomplete, four of which are soon to be approaching the 60-day cut-off period.

buzzztbucket registered 11/28/07, last active 11/28/07
Lazertek1 registered 12/03/07, last active 12/03/07
Mike Davis registered 12/12/07, last active 12/12/07
smokey13 registered 12/11/07, last active 12/11/07

We require our members supply a valid e-mail address at the time of registration. This accomplishes a couple things -

We will have each member's valid e-mail address for Private Message notifications and forum announcements

The confirmation e-mail requires you to click on a link to complete the registration. Spam-bots cannot accomplish this task, so this prevents excessive spam registrations.

If you registered with a 'freebie' e-mail account (Yahoo, HotMail, etc.), the confirmation e-mail may have been trapped by a filter into a Spam or Junk folder, so if you do not see the e-mail within a few minutes after registering, check those folders.

 

[old round fart]

I can't figure out how to post a statement. Can you send me info?

 

[old round fart]

I can't figure out how to post a statement. Can you send me info? thanks

 

[Mike]

What kind of statement are you wanting to post?

 

[Webmaster]

OK, this is starting to become more than a little burdensome.

This forum is one of three where I am the sole admin. Of the three, this one is the only one that is catering to primarily male members. The other two forums are made up of a majority of female members.

Yet this forum is the forum that presents constant and ongoing issues with new members being unable to finalize their registration processes and being unable to post messages in the forums. Not a day goes by that I don't get at least one e-mail, asking why a new member cannot post.

Guys, I've got two forums full of ladies that are not having problems. What's up with that? A gal can easily follow instructions that a guy cannot? You tell me the answer.

I am the technical co-admin of three other forums. One is quite large - over 3,000 members and over 350,000 posts. Of that number, the number is overwhelmingly made up of male members. In the two-plus years I've served that forum, I have had absolutely ZERO e-mails asking about why a new member cannot post. What's up with that? Why can these gents register with no problems?

Last week, I had three different complaints about this self-inflicted, registration 'problem'. On each occasion, I tested the registration process and it worked exactly as it is meant to work. I posted about this at the time and the thread was inadvertently deleted, so I'm going to walk through this, one more time.

I visited the forum and clicked on the Register link. I was then taken to the following page -

I ticked the box to indicate I was willing to accept the rules of this forum and was then taken to the next step -

I set up testaccount as a new username, filled in a password and a valid e-mail address. I then entered the characters displayed in the CAPTCHA display.

Perhaps you've not noticed, but we're quite successful at keeping spammers off this site. We require all new members to provide us with a valid e-mail address, so we are not getting false registrations. This is tripping up a lot of newly registered members, because we check the e-mail address used for registration, to make sure it is valid. When a new member registers here, the final step of the registration process involves the forum software sending an e-mail to that new member's e-mail account. The e-mail contains a link that MUST be clicked on, in order to finalize the registration procedure. Until that action is taken, all new accounts are held in somewhat of a state of limbo.

Most people want to use a freebie e-mail address to register on a forum. That's OK with me, but be aware you are creating your own problem when you do that. Most of the freebie e-mail providers (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) have filters running on their mail servers. And quite often (read: damn near always) the verification e-mails sent from forums are going to be filtered by these providers as spam or junk. Hence, the verification e-mail, which MUST be acted upon, ends up in a folder that never gets checked, leaving the verification process hung up at the user's end and the forum account never gets finalized.

We take privacy very seriously. We're not here to collect e-mail addresses for sale to other companies. We will not give a member's e-mail address to anyone without permission or a warrant from a recognized legal authority. So do yourself a favor and register with the e-mail address provided by your Internet Service Provider. DO NOT USE A FREE E-MAIL ACCOUNT TO REGISTER FOR THIS FORUM.

I can block certain e-mail providers from the forum and if the problem persists, I will block the freebie providers.

CAPTCHA Image Verification is our second line of defense against spam. Computer scripts cannot read those images and fill in the correct characters, so that keeps the mechanical registrations at bay.

Now I've had people complain they cannot get past CAPTCHA. One individual contacted me to let me know he had filled in the correct characters, three times in a row and could not get past it. He then went on to tell me that he was going to try it one more time and if he failed, he was outa here.

Here's the bottom line - if you enter the characters, exactly as they are displayed, then it will never be a problem. If you see a lower-case 'a' in the CAPTCHA image, then enter it as a lower-case 'a'. Pretty simple, right? As for the individual that threatened me with his imminent departure, let's just say I sleep well at night. I'm not going to accept a spam-filled forum, simply because an individual cannot follow instructions. We're doing our best to make this a user-friendly site and allowing the spammers in to sell their game boxes, cell phones, pills and porn is not what we consider to be user-friendly.

E-Mail Verification and CAPTCHA Image Verification are here to stay.

I filled out the rest of the information on that page and clicked on Complete Registration.

I was then presented with this page, notifying me an e-mail was being sent to the address I had just registered with and that I would have to take action with that e-mail to finalize my registration process.

I turned from the computer I was using to register, to the computer I run my e-mail client on and just that quickly, I had the following e-mail in my Inbox -

Dear testaccount,

Thank you for registering at the The T-Bucket Forums. Before we can activate your account one last step must be taken to complete your registration.

Please note - you must complete this last step to become a registered member. You will only need to visit this url once to activate your account.

To complete your registration, please visit this url:
http://www.tbucketeers.com/forum/register.php?a=act&u=263&i=********

<a href="http://www.tbucketeers.com/forum/register.php?a=act&u=263&i=********">America Online Users Please Visit Here to be Activated</a>

**** Does The Above URL Not Work? ****
If the above url does not work, please use your Web browser to go to:
http://www.tbucketeers.com/forum/register.php?a=ver

Please be sure not to add extra spaces. You will need to type in your username and activation number on the page that appears when you visit the url.

Your Username is: testaccount
Your Activation ID is: ********

If you are still having problems signing up please contact a member of our support staff at webmaster@weallknowtheaddress.com

All the best,
The T-Bucket Forums

I clicked on that link in the e-mail, was returned to the forum and was advised that my registration process had been completed.

Just that quickly, I was advised of another new e-mail.

Dear testaccount,

Thanks for registering at The T-Bucket Forums! We are glad you have chosen to be a part of our community and we hope you enjoy your stay.

All the best,
The T-Bucket Forums

That is how insanely simple it is to register for this forum. All it required of me was to follow some very simple and basic instructions. Once I did that, everything worked, smooth as silk.

When a member registers and does not click on the link in that confirmation e-mail, the member's account is established in a usergroup, called Users Awaiting E-Mail Verification. There are currently 22 members in that usergroup. Of the 22, 13 of them are members that have signed up with Yahoo or Hotmail e-mail accounts.

As soon as a new member clicks on the e-mail link, their usergroup status is automatically promoted to the Registered Users group.

We currently have 263 members. Of that number, 200+ have managed to register without any problems whatsoever.

If you've registered for the forum and cannot locate the verification in your Yahoo or Hotmail junk folder, then click on the Contact Us link at the bottom of the page. Send me a message, using the same e-mail address you registered with and when I have the opportunity, I will manually activate your account.

If you've registered for this forum 60+ days ago and cannot log in with your username, you can safely assume it has been removed from the database. in that case, should you choose to re-register, please remember my subtle hint about using a 'real' e-mail address.

 

[testaccount]

And this is just to prove that the testaccount username can post on the forum.

 

[LumenAl]

...

Guys, I've got two forums full of ladies that are not having problems. What's up with that? A gal can easily follow instructions that a guy cannot? You tell me the answer...

I am the technical co-admin of three other forums. One is quite large - over 3,000 members and over 350,000 posts. Of that number, the number is overwhelmingly made up of male members. In the two-plus years I've served that forum, I have had absolutely ZERO e-mails asking about why a new member cannot post. What's up with that?...

ya... but how many of them gents is our age! :soapbox:

 

[MDANIELSON55]

ime kinda sure ime on it cuz it says welcome mdanielson55 and sorry to bug u but ime not that good on the pc, but i cant find out how to post all i can do is reply what am i doing wrong or missing thanks mike

 

[Webmaster]

You just need to click on the New Thread button.

Click on the attached image.