ADMINS... you guys really need to activate these new members

[SearchingLyoko offline]

Hello Admins,

As you've seen, we're getting about 1 or 2 new members a week.

And it's come to my attention that you guys aren't activating them.

We need to be activating these people and to be enticing them to actually be active. It won't work if we don't activate them.

I've actually been getting e-mails from these non-activated people asking me to request that you activate them. They want to join.

I know at least one of you get the activation e-mails. I believe TB3 may have mentioned he recieved them.

Admins, please work this out amongst yourselves because we need these people activated.

They DO want to join. Even to the point of e-mailing me asking me to tell you.

Thanks!
-SearchingLyoko

[TheAppleFreak]

SL, I understand that you want our community to expand, but we have had a bad experience with spambots and then there was the entire Yigal incident...
I expect that some of these new members are simply bots willing to propogate Nike shoes or Viagra or... well, does anyone remember that one bot that was advertising "big titties?"

I understand that some people are genuinely interested in our forums, but with increased site activity, we see increased bot activity, and TB3 might not want to take that risk.

[SearchingLyoko offline]

If they are E-MAILING me telling me how much they are a CL fan and they desperately want to get in, then how are they a bot?

Danperteet especially wants to get in. I know him from several other forums.

[Carth]

SL, I understand that you want our community to expand, but we have had a bad experience with spambots and then there was the entire Yigal incident...
I expect that some of these new members are simply bots willing to propogate Nike shoes or Viagra or... well, does anyone remember that one bot that was advertising "big titties?"

I understand that some people are genuinely interested in our forums, but with increased site activity, we see increased bot activity, and TB3 might not want to take that risk.

I find myself agreeing with SL here. New members mean increased forum activity, which is what we've always wanted with this place within reason. Spambots are a containable nuisance. Should we sacrifice one for the other?

[SearchingLyoko offline]

I agree.

I'm not exactly sure how you moderators and admins work, but I'm pretty sure you only have a button or two to press to say bye-bye to the bot forever (heck, if you need help, I'll do it).

Plus, are we that cruel to turn away loving CL fans?

[Slayer offline]

I agree with carth and SL, if they ARE spambots then just do a ip ban or something on them. And with what SL said that makes us as bad as moonscoop if we pretty much just say "No no more"

[SearchingLyoko offline]

MoonScoop has profit reasons. We don't.
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Hey, if I didn't take the initiative to e-mail you people asking to confirm me, I probably wouldn't be here.

Could you imagine life without me? At least here?

We ARE turning away perfectly great people. There is no "maybe" about it.

[SilverPrince offline]

There is a loophole to get in, as I understand. You click the "I forgot my password" link (or whatever it says) and follow the steps. It's been done before.

But I agree with SL, Carth, et. al. We can't turn away people who might bring quality posts just because they might be spambots. I mean, sometimes it's pretty obvious; spambots' names are usually random strings of letters and numbers. Actual users usually have names that make some kind of sense.

I'd really like it if we could scare some of the vultures away. I mean, sure, who doesn't love the vultures? But there's so many of them. We need some more people. And there are people who are trying to get on, but LF is essentially blocking new members. Where else do they have to go? Codelyoko.com? Franz forbid.

Perhaps new members will need a "contact" in LF? Someone to say "Yes, I know [person], they are not a spambot."

[SearchingLyoko offline]

What if they don't know anyone?

I didn't know anyone when joining?
__________

Btw, how would the new people know about the forgotten password?
_______________________________

We need to develop a way to hook and entice and welcome in new people.
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And this isn't getting us anywhere. We still need these people activated, and talking won't do it.
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Edit: Someone new just signed up today too. And I know him also from the CL forums..

LET THESE PEOPLE IN!

[Mewberries151]

Okay, wow...just wow...SL. I gotta say. This is completely inappropriate.

Not the request you're making, but the way you've gone about it.

First off, WHY, if people are e-mailing you about membership problems, did you not then take the initiative and E-MAIL either myself or TB3. We both have public e-mails posted. Why didn't you notify us directly instead of posting a complaint here that was otherwise an easily solved problem?
Or better yet, give these people contacting you our e-mail address so that they can contact us themselves? Unacceptable.

Also, in regards to their complaint, HOW MANY people have contacted you and HOW LONG have they been waiting? I'm fairly certain that TB3 updates the new member activation each week (with few exceptions) as has been the process for several months now. I'm sorry, if they cannot wait a week patiently (at least if they are as impatient as you're making them out to be), but again, you could have forwarded their concerns to us via e-mail, or at least maybe explained that we only activate new members once a week which has been mentioned by TB3 several times before at least. (Did you even try to find out why we do what we do before posting this?)

I'm sorry, but for now, the member activation is going to stay the way it is. 1 or 2 new people a week is NOTHING compared to the member influx we used to have and completely handle-able by our current staff. Myself and the other Admins are not going to deal with spambots purely because 1 or 2 people who actually are applying members can't wait until we do the weekly member activations.

And no, we don't need help with that. And even if we did, that duty would go to one of the current Mods who is familiar with the system and what to look for in a possible spambot. Not you. If you want to help out, why not take my suggestion and forward these supposed anxious members to either myself and TB3 via e-mail so that we can handle them?

WAITING A WEEK WILL NOT KILL THEM. WE'LL LET THEM IN AT THE NEXT MEMBER ACTIVATION. Yeesh.

If they are E-MAILING me telling me how much they are a CL fan and they desperately want to get in, then how are they a bot?

Danperteet especially wants to get in. I know him from several other forums.

Why are they E-MAILING you in the first place? They should be e-mailing us. WHY, I ask again, did you not send them our PUBLICALLY displayed e-mails from our profiles and told them to e-mail us specifically if they were that impatient.

I agree.

I'm not exactly sure how you moderators and admins work, but I'm pretty sure you only have a button or two to press to say bye-bye to the bot forever (heck, if you need help, I'll do it).

Plus, are we that cruel to turn away loving CL fans?

Making them wait a week is not cruel. Wow, hyperbole much? And no, it's not just a button or two when done manually, and certainly not if there's more than one.

Oh, and wow, nice try on trying to get an "In" here. Not happening.

I agree with carth and SL, if they ARE spambots then just do a ip ban or something on them. And with what SL said that makes us as bad as moonscoop if we pretty much just say "No no more"

Sadly, most bots use IPs that make them hard to block. They have fluctuating numbers that could result in us banning an actual LF member along with the bot and that we definitely don't want.

Bots are clever. We used to be able to block them with simple "Are you human?" questions and CAPTCHA. Not anymore. They've found ways to circumnavigate those methods.

This is why it's far more easier for us to delete them before they can actually join while activating other legit members.

MoonScoop has profit reasons. We don't.
_______________________________________________________________

Hey, if I didn't take the initiative to e-mail you people asking to confirm me, I probably wouldn't be here.

Could you imagine life without me? At least here?

We ARE turning away perfectly great people. There is no "maybe" about it.

Hey, I know I never got an e-mail, and yes, you would have gotten in here, within about a week. Clearly you wouldn't have been able to wait that long. What a shame.

Don't even make me answer that second question there because believe me, you won't like the answer.

And yes, there is a "maybe" about it. Want to know why? Because you clearly don't know the full story, nor have any idea how to actually go about helping the people you want to help (see that whole "why didn't you e-mail us with their names" idea I posted several times above).


Edited for spelling/grammar mistakes made while raging. Sorry for any I missed.

[matsumo itsu offline]

I say accept them, but keep close eye on them for shall we say... 2 weeks? then drop them from suspicion? i know that's hard to do with limited admins.But i say increasing member flow and just killing the bots one at a time would be beneficial.

[SearchingLyoko offline]

My apologies Mewberries.

First, the e-mail's did not even occur to me. They completely slipped my mind.

Second, I had no idea whatsoever that you did a weekly activation. I've seen people registered for more then a week and never post... so that tells me that there may be another problem with getting them to post. This is certainly not your fault, but I myself want to look into that; a way to entice them to post.

One of the people who have e-mailed me (and by the way, they e-mail me because they know me from other forums, and since I joined, they asked if I could ask you) has been waiting since Dec. 29, which is longer then a week. This person also says he cannot access your public e-mail address to e-mail you.

Once again, I'm completely sorry. It slipped my mind, but now that I know, I hope we can put this behind us (and hopefully get those accounts activated).

Thanks and sorry again.
-SearchingLyoko

[ccbtimewiz offline]

Honestly I'm not even sure why LF has member activation on. On most forums I browse on, approval is done through member activation along with semi-heavy captcha (or reCaptcha).

Considering the age of this bb, I would assume the captcha isn't very good which is why it is easily exploitable by bots. There are update packs around that can fix this.

In conclusion, admin activation isn't that big a deal if its a few weeks, but it is very unnecessary for such a small forum (or in this case, a forum dying down). At least this is what I think.

[Mewberries151]

Honestly I'm not even sure why LF has member activation on. On most forums I browse on, approval is done through member activation along with semi-heavy captcha (or reCaptcha).

That's how it worked previously. Admin-activation had to be turned on though after a particularly aggressive sock-puppet invasion by Yigal was made, as well as issues with Spam bots getting past the Captcha we had set up.

Considering the age of this bb, I would assume the captcha isn't very good which is why it is easily exploitable by bots. There are update packs around that can fix this.

In conclusion, admin activation isn't that big a deal if its a few weeks, but it is very unnecessary for such a small forum (or in this case, a forum dying down). At least this is what I think.

Updates in that area are hopefully coming shortly, although the holidays and school/RL hampered progress on that a bit. I'm not sure at this time what that will mean for current member activation but it's certainly something that will be looked into when everything's set up.

My apologies Mewberries.

First, the e-mail's did not even occur to me. They completely slipped my mind.

It's fine. I realize people kinda forget that we have our e-mails set as public, and that PMs wouldn't exactly help in a situation like this.

Second, I had no idea whatsoever that you did a weekly activation. I've seen people registered for more then a week and never post... so that tells me that there may be another problem with getting them to post. This is certainly not your fault, but I myself want to look into that; a way to entice them to post.

I think the problem is that, some of them are bots and some of them are legit people. There's then a fraction of the people that are legit who either, forget that they joined here, or decide not to join after all either because of RL stuff or what have you.

That's fine if you want to advertise the forum to people on other forums (although don't do it if it's against that forum's rules or in a spammy way, of course), but I'd be hesitant about heckling people who join into posting after their accounts are activated. That's really up to them to do if they choose to or are able to do so. ^^;

One of the people who have e-mailed me (and by the way, they e-mail me because they know me from other forums, and since I joined, they asked if I could ask you) has been waiting since Dec. 29, which is longer then a week. This person also says he cannot access your public e-mail address to e-mail you.

I'm not sure why he wouldn't be able to access my public e-mail...can you ask him "how" he's having trouble...or better yet, just forward his e-mail address to me (by e-mail or PM, whatever is your preference), and I'll contact him personally to see what I can do. If he's been waiting since Dec. 29th that's...not right. xD;

[TheLQ offline]

I agree with ccbtimewiz that a more heavy duty captcha with a custom list of questions would cut out 99.9% of the bots. And you complain that bots are getting past the blocks? Well thats probably because this is an ancient version of phpBB. The upgrade process might take 30 minutes at most, with most of that waiting for the upload to finish, the other checking for problems. Set a time when the admins can all be on at once to find bugs and fix problems quickly. Hell, even solicit help from us programmers that might be able to offer more information.

And you can never, NEVER stop spambots. One will always get through, and your screwed. Its just a fact of life.

[SearchingLyoko offline]

Okay... I think I see an activity revival project, though small, in the works.

You guys can work out the tech stuff.

I personally am trying to think of a way to basically hook new members... so when they join they don't forget they are EAGER.
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EDIT: Someone else on the CL Forums just told me they haven't had their account activated in 3-4 months...

So yeah... there is a problem going on here...

[Carth]

Okay... I think I see an activity revival project, though small, in the works.

You guys can work out the tech stuff.

I personally am trying to think of a way to basically hook new members... so when they join they don't forget they are EAGER.
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EDIT: Someone else on the CL Forums just told me they haven't had their account activated in 3-4 months...

So yeah... there is a problem going on here...

We'd love us some eager members! If you could give us or Mew the names of these people that might've gotten skipped over (or just tell them the forgotten password trick) we could get them in in no time.

And thank you for handling the situation reasonably. ^__^

[SearchingLyoko offline]

That's the thing, there's a lot of them, not just the ones I know.

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I'll try to get on this tomorrow. I just had a huge fight between my two tech-developers for CodeLyokoUnited that I needed to mediate...

I will do it though. Tomorrow.

[TB3]

Yo guys - this is my fault mosly - I get the email prompts, but often ignore them for a day or two, just because I've been quite busy and/or stressed of late - I'll now go trawl through my emails and activate all the outstanding ones

[SearchingLyoko offline]

Thanks teebs.

I completely COMPLETELY (like you have no idea how completely) understand being late doing stuff... but Dreadlord (and that's his name here) hasn't had his account activated in 3+ Months...

And if he hasn't... who knows how many else.

[TB3]

Thanks teebs.

I completely COMPLETELY (like you have no idea how completely) understand being late doing stuff... but Dreadlord (and that's his name here) hasn't had his account activated in 3+ Months...

And if he hasn't... who knows how many else.

If that's the case, then his prompt probably got deleted back before I realised that these things had to be opened and done invidiually. I've trawled through my emails and every single activation prompt has now been answered - if your friend still is having trouble, then he'll have to try creating a new account

[Mewberries151]

I agree with ccbtimewiz that a more heavy duty captcha with a custom list of questions would cut out 99.9% of the bots. And you complain that bots are getting past the blocks? Well thats probably because this is an ancient version of phpBB. The upgrade process might take 30 minutes at most, with most of that waiting for the upload to finish, the other checking for problems. Set a time when the admins can all be on at once to find bugs and fix problems quickly. Hell, even solicit help from us programmers that might be able to offer more information.

And you can never, NEVER stop spambots. One will always get through, and your screwed. Its just a fact of life.

Yes, we are aware that we are using an out-dated version of php. Could you all please stop bringing that up? Repetition won't get it fixed any faster. *sweatdrops*

I've said before on other threads that I am working on updating the php this forum runs on with Warton as neither myself nor any of the other Admins or Mods feel comfortable doing it by ourselves.

The forum will be updated eventually and we'll let everyone know ahead of time in case there is some expected downtime connected. Now can we please drop this whole "update the forum nao" thing?" I really hate to feel like a broken record explaining what is going on with forum updates over and over again so please stop making me do that. ^^; Thank you.


Anyway, SL, in the event that TB3 is not getting all the "activation" e-mails (mine stopped coming some weeks ago for example) on Wednesday I ran through the entire member list from the date we enabled Admin-Only Activation to that night, and everyone has been activated.

Anyone who is still having troubles logging in is going to need to contact us directly from now on. If they contact you instead, please give them my e-mail address and I will help them personally. I don't think using you as a proxy is fair nor does it agree with my own sense of "User Privacy".

Just as a general plea to all members, if someone contacts you with a problem regarding the forum, please either PM me with their e-mail address so that I may contact them about the problem or let them know how to contact me (my e-mail is listed in my profile here) so that I can help them that way.

Thank you.

<i>Edited yet again for more grammar and spelling fail. >_>;

[smiller offline]

What? Yigal was... here? *laughs* That guy has been spamming Code Lyoko forums for years, trying to steal passwords. How can he call himself a Code Lyoko fan?

It was a real difficulty for me to be activated. I had to ask Xana Never Dies to try to talk to the admins about it, and then try to get a hold of MewBerries on Deviantart. It took me a year to finally be activated. :/

Heres an idea: Make people who are not logged in able to post in the Newbies forum, and you have to post in there to be activated. There may be spam, but it would not be too bad.... I wouldn't think. Are there enough mods to cover the spam load of that?

[MY85 offline]

Could you imagine life without me? At least here?

Spectacular.

[Mewberries151]

What? Yigal was... here? *laughs* That guy has been spamming Code Lyoko forums for years, trying to steal passwords. How can he call himself a Code Lyoko fan?

Heh, yep. He's tried to sock-puppet his way in here at least three times. He seemed to have a slight vendetta against us, possibly because of our affiliation with Teklinks or...just because we banned him. ^^; Who knows really. That's pretty crazy if he's still spamming CL forums even now.

It was a real difficulty for me to be activated. I had to ask Xana Never Dies to try to talk to the admins about it, and then try to get a hold of MewBerries on Deviantart. It took me a year to finally be activated. :/

Heres an idea: Make people who are not logged in able to post in the Newbies forum, and you have to post in there to be activated. There may be spam, but it would not be too bad.... I wouldn't think. Are there enough mods to cover the spam load of that?

My apologies again for the delay in your activation but thanks very much for getting in touch with me personally. It made getting your login information set-up and activating your account very easy and I really appreciate it.

I rather like that idea you've got there. There is a way to set a forum to allow "Guest/Non-Member" posts and Newbies seems a fairly appropriate forum for that. Also any bot/spam posts would just be stopped there before they got into the rest of the forum. I'll be sure to pose this idea to the rest of the Admins/Mods. Thanks much!