For example, during the first half of 2011, spammers were registering new accounts on the board at a rate of several thousand per month. To prevent any spam from getting through, all postings by new members went to a moderation queue. Unfortunately, this queue was flooded with hundreds of spam postings on a daily basis. This not only made it difficult for me, as moderator, to locate legitimate postings, the sheer volume of spam that flooded the moderation queue was enough to cause the database that runs this board to significantly exceed its quota. As a result, my hosting provider disabled certain functions on the database which caused the board to malfunction for over a week - and it took a considerable amount of time and hassle on my part to get the matter resolved with my hosting service.
So, for legitimate would-be members, if you find the registration procedures here to be a bit inconvenient, you have my apologies. But please understand that they are absolutely necessary in order to prevent this board from quickly becoming overwhelmed with spam. I have deliberately made registration a bit inconvenient because, if it is inconvenient for a legitimate user, it will be REALLY inconvenient for spammers who seek to register with as many discussion boards as possible.
Sign Up Instructions - Please read these instructions in their entirety before attempting to register.
1) If you do not plan to participate in the conversations or put up postings, then there is no need to register at all. All postings on this board are equally visible to members and non-members alike. The ONLY benefit of registration is the ability to put up postings and to use the board's Personal Messaging feature to contact other members who have chosen to receive such messages. And new members do NOT have access to the Personal Messaging feature until AFTER they have put up postings to demonstrate that they are legitimate users and not spammers.
2) If you do not plan on putting up your first posting within the next two weeks, hold off on registration until you plan to do so. The board is set up to automatically delete all new registrations that have NOT put up their first posting within two weeks.
3) If you plan to spam the board - don't waste your time or my time. Your postings will be caught by a moderation queue and will NOT be seen by anybody other than myself and I promise you that I will delete them unread the very instant I become aware that they are spam.
4) If you still wish to register, send an email saying that you wish to become a member of the board to: boardsignup AT dismuke DOT org Your email MUST be sent from the email address that you wish to use to register your membership with. You do NOT need to provide additional information such as your desired user name at this time.
5) Within 24 - 36 hours you should receive a form letter reply back from me requesting additional information. It is here that I will request the user ID that you wish to use on the message board. I will also ask you for some other information - including a very brief answer as to why you wish to become a member. Your answer does not have to be long or in any way impressive. My ONLY purpose for asking is to determine whether you are a legitimate user or a would-be spammer. A legitimate user is anyone who has an interest in or question about the music and/or popular culture of the early 1900s decades or any other matter that is discussed on this board. I WANT people who feel they have something positive to contribute or feel they can benefit to participate in the board. My goal is to discourage spammers, not well meaning people who wish to participate.
If you do not receive a reply back from me within 48 hours, please check any spam folders that might be in place on your account to see if it might have gone there. If not, then feel free to send me a reminder. My goal, however, is to reply back well before 48 hours. Please, however, do NOT expect my reply to be immediate. Part of the reason for my not replying immediately even when I have a chance to do so is the premise that an email account that is heavily involved in spam activity will hopefully be disabled by the ISP prior to my replying back.
6) Once you reply back with the information I have requested, I will set up a user account for you under the user ID that you request. I will then reply back with your login information and a temporary password along with instructions on how to change the temporary password to another password of your choosing.
7) Once you receive your login information and password, you may begin posting to the board. Please keep in mind, however, that you initial postings will go to a moderation queue where they must first be approved by a moderator before they are visible to the public. Once it becomes clear by the postings you have put up that you are a legitimate user and NOT a spammer, your membership will be upgraded from "validating" status to full membership status. After your membership has been upgraded, your future postings will become immediately visible to the public and no longer have to go through the moderation queue.
Sorry again if this process seems to be a bit of a hassle. Keep in mind that this is a one time only process. Once your membership is set up and you have demonstrated you are not a spammer, you will have full posting and messaging privileges. My intention here is to make registration to the board require more time and hassle than all but the most determined spammer is willing to put up with. Unfortunately, that requires everybody else to go through the same sign up process as well.
Finally, please do NOT use the registration email as a means for contacting me personally and please do NOT expect any sort of reply other than form letters providing you with registration related information/requests. If you wish to contact me personally, my email address is dismuke AT dismuke DOT org. Please understand that my free time is limited and is frequently stretched very thin - so there are times when it is simply not possible for me to reply back to all emails that I receive.