Manual Registration System...

[m1thr0s]

Abrahadabra Forums is going to a Manual Registration System in the effort to minimize time and energy wasted on trolls, bots, spammers, and even people that really just don't belong here. In truth, we are not requiring much of anything new but a Required Statement of intent which means that new registrants will have to give us some sort of reason for joining. People will have to wait on Moderator Approval to be admitted as posting members but the system is very fast and we don't have that huge an influx of new members right now anyway. We are growing though, and as we do, we are also getting targeted more than I personally have time to waste on.

This should not affect existing members at all with the slight possibility that the new Required Statement box may kick in when you make any changes to your profiles. If this occurs and gives you any problems, please report this at once and we will look into it. It is supposed to be set to be a required field at Registration only. It has only really been tested on new registrants and appears to be working quickly and correctly.

thanks folks,

m1thr0s

[m1thr0s]

I've been running a few tests on the new Required Statement field and it does look like it will kick in as a required field for members who (1) never entered anything in this field to begin with and (2) go to modify their profiles in some way. There is no way for me to make this field both required and not required, so the workaround is simply to enter an "n/a" in the box when this comes up. It will only come up so long as there is nothing at all entered in that field. Once you have entered something, it won't prompt you again...

That's about the best we can do without rewriting the whole program but it's a very minor annoyance in the overview and the value to us otherwise is significant. The new system has already blocked at least one bot and several spammers that nobody has had to endure...and it's only been in place less than a week!

thanks gang,

m1thr0s

[Naomi]

Ok so what happens with our required statements? Does the staff access these or are they just stuck in our profiles? Because I totally filled mine out.

[m1thr0s]

they are intended to be hidden fields Naomi. I can make them public so they show up in people's visible profiles but it seemed to me that most people would prefer they remained hidden. Admin can access them. Moderators can also see them. registered members see their own statements but others cannot.

can't wait to read yours! lol...

m1thr0s