New rules for new members

SpezDispenser wrote:Right now, we have to treat this as seriously as possible.

We had an issue with a former member named Notch, several posters on here had bad experiences with him until we finally banned him. Then he reappeared under a different name, so we banned him once we caught wind it was him. And over and over and over, causing issues with posters and finally attacking our site, screwing up the PM feature for quite some time IIRC.

After dealing with him, we have a crew of watchdogs that look for his IP that we traced towards the end of his tenure here.

That IP address recently popped up again with CockRoche and Straight Shooter. We gather the odds of this being a coincidence are rather slim, so despite some of us really liking CR, we felt it had to be done for the good of the site.

The reason for sponsorship + real e-mails is to prevent it from happening again while we figure out what the best way to do things are. I assume it will end up being sponsored members for a long, long time unfortunately, but I hope I'm wrong. A friend of one of the posters here is sponsored by the poster, we admit him and so on and so on. Right now, I don't see a different way to go about it, and neither did any of the Admins.

We will work so we can attract more people, I'm not sure how yet, but I assume we'll end up being fine. I appreciate the posters who come here very much and maintain that this is THE place to chat about the Sens without prejudice. Hopefully the posters agree with that as we work to slowly figure out some of the security features that might need to be added along the way.

shabbs wrote:I applaud the site's owners and mods for their efforts in clamping down on these types of detrimental activities. I would also like to caution them on stifling potential new growth of this site by making it difficult for new members to join and contribute. Tread carefully.

Cap'n Clutch wrote:New members can still join they just require an email that fits our needs and it's only as a means of verifying a persons identity. That email can then be changed the moment the person registers an account.

tim1_2 wrote:I was going to stay out of this whole thing, but the new rules to gain access seem a little too tough. I would’ve never been able to get an account with the new rules. I didn’t know anyone on here before I started posting.

People hate giving out their Bell/Rogers/corporate emails addresses, AND if you need to have someone that’s already a member vouch for you…. Seems like the ability of these forums to grow has just taken a big hit.

I understand that this is a difficult situation, and I have no solutions to offer. I’m quite happy with the way things are now, so even if membership is stagnant, that doesn’t bother me.

tim1_2 wrote:I don't really mind myself, but I know others who won't put anything on the net that shows their real name/identity. Especially to people they don't know.

I was just re-stating the obvious.

I do show my ID for parcels. How else would I get my stuff?

What's a Blockbuster?