[Andrew Field]

Just a quick reminder - we are delighted to welcome new members to the History Teachers' Discussion Forum.

As forums can be overrun with 'spam', all new registrations are manually processed by members of the Admin team. As we are all teachers it does mean your registration may not be processed immediately. However, if you follow the instructions on the registration screen and register with a real name, or first name and initial your registration will be processed as rapidly as possible. We really do have to be this strict with new registrations as spammers use automated tools to register fake accounts which then can spoil the forum for everyone.

As an example, I've just let through about 23 new members but rejected: terazleaman, vallykandhan, Ed Startup, Rich, nettie, cbrst2, jkallhands and adtastic2001. These are all registrations in the last couple of days.

Sincere apologies if these are genuine registrations - do contact us if they are.

Thanks Oh - and new members - don't be shy, please feel free to contribute to any existing discussion or start new ones!

[calstaples]

I know of adtastic2001...! He's a hero, not a villain!

[Andrew Field]

calstaples, on Sep 8 2007, 08:09 PM, said:

I know of adtastic2001...! He's a hero, not a villain!

We'll he's a hero who didn't read the registration requirements:

Quote

Joining the History Teachers' Discussion Forum

When you register on this forum, please use your full name or combination of firstname and initial. For example, Andrew Field or Andrew F. The aim is to continue to build a friendly community but also to establish people as individuals.

When you register your account, each account is manually approved by the site team. This means that your account isn't instantly available. If you join with a sensible name that will allow us to approve your account much more rapidly. We have had to introduce this measure because of so many spam registrations.

http://www.schoolhis...x...Reg&CODE=00

If he can contact me using the link in the first post I'll sort out the membership.

[Andrew Field]

Just to say that we do continue to approve as many new registrations as possible but those who don't follow the quite clear instructions simply don't manage to get on the forum. From the 114 new attempts in the past few days we have had a whole load a spam but also humpty dumpty, littlemisscitizenship and mrhistory all try to join. Please - if you are joining the forum - do follow the instructions. We approve all new memberships as soon as possible but you do need to follow the instructions.

This is important to keep this forum the friendly, vibrant and supportive community that it continues to be

[Andrew Field]

Just to repeat this message again really - if you join with your full name or first name and initials your membership will be approved as soon as I see it - normally the same day. However, if you join with some alternative username it will take longer to approve your membership for the aforementioned reasons.

We've had all sorts try to join recently including 'frustrated', 'cooper80', 'benno720', 'MSA101' in the last hour or so.

[Dan Moorhouse]

Firstly a quick word of apology to new members who have had to wait for a few days for validation. I've been unwell and haven't got around to looking at the list in that period of time.

Second a reminder for prospective members about usernames. If you follow the guidelines you'll (normally) get approved pretty quickly.

[Andrew Field]

I've just approved a bunch of new members - apologies for the delay in approvals - there have been lots of spam attacks on online forums recently and there have been many bogus registrations by spammers.

However, still around 60% of new registrations are using all sorts of strange usernames. Please do read the registration instructions!

[Dave Wallbanks]

Just been checking through the list of people wanting to register here. We've got an Adolf, a godviagra, a casinogamez and loads of other odd user names. Please remember to check our instructions for registrationand use an appropriate name for your membership here!

[Andrew Field]

I've just been through and approved all queued new registrations. Yet again there were loads of strange usernames - mostly from spammers but please do read the previous messages here - if you join up with a username such as 'hackernoir' you're unfortunately not going to get approved. Nothing to do with being stuffy, but we get so many spammy registrations that those with a clear username and e-mail address that matches / is school based / doesn't appear dodgy really helps us let fellow history teachers through.

Apologies if you have missed out - do me know via the main site if you cannot get access.

[Andrew Field]

Just had to deny all the following membership - either didn't follow the instructions or had e-mails which were noway linked to their usernames

bobm
Slateruk
harvey73
History Steve
Marakith
nagina666

Please read the instructions! All we ask is that you use your real name or combination or first name and initial.

[jbassett44]

Quote

nagina666

Please read the instructions! All we ask is that you use your real name or combination or first name and initial.

If that last one is genuine, I'll give you my house!!

[Dan Moorhouse]

jbassett44, on Jul 20 2009, 09:14 PM, said:

Quote

nagina666

Please read the instructions! All we ask is that you use your real name or combination or first name and initial.

If that last one is genuine, I'll give you my house!!

We've seen worse! For example I'm currently pondering whether or not Elizabeth the First is a 'real' person and valid membership request or not...