If you've signed up but just been too shy to post, e-mail me and let me know you're a real person. I'll upgrade your membership and you'll never have to worry about this again, unless you start trying to sell cheap Viagra or something. In the meantime, I hope you all respect our ongoing efforts to make certain ONLY people who are interested in the hobbies we discuss and respectful of other members can post here.
Backstory: When we first started this forum, we enabled software that would let people sign up automatically, though their posts wouldn't appear on the forums unless I approved them. Thousands of fake signups occurred, along with a couple dozen real signups and about 14 that looked like they were probably real. But culling out the hundreds of obviously fake signups a week was becoming a full-time job - aren't spammers wonderful? So I went to an e-mail only signup using the contact page, and now I only have to cull out a couple dozen fake signups a week - aren't spammers wonderful?
The problem with any fake signups that are already in the system is that they're little "time bombs," that is, they're designed to say nothing at all or else come up with generic comments like "nice site, I'll tell my friends," for the first six months. Many sites automatically upgrade signups to full members after 6 months, and that's when the robospammers begin systematically making the site useless by filling every forum with Viagra ads or some such. (If you're a Stargate SG1 fan, think "replicators.")
Because I keep new signups in "quarantine" indefinitely until they post something that convinces me they're real people interested in the subject matter of our site, the time bombs never get through to the pages you see. But some of those early signups are beginning to make the attempt, and my patience with the potential time bombs has run out.
Again, if you're a real person who has just never posted, either post something hobby-related or e-mail me using the contact page, and I'll upgrade you.
If you have posted, THANKS a bunch, it's real human interaction of likeminded people that have built the hobbies we discuss, and will continue to make this the best place for putz fans and builders to hang out. Best wishes for the upcoming Holiday season,
Paul "None Shall Pass" Race
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