[Administration] Some problems with e-mail and the user list

[Volker Pittlik]

Some of you have noticed that they can't log-in after they have changed their e-mail address. Other asked by e-mail why someone is not in the memberlist although he has an account.

This kind of behavior is intended or not to circumvent.

The main reason for that discomfort are spammers. Spam bots in this case which try to register here. Although accounts have to be activated by me the default behavior of the forum software is to list them immediately in the memberlist. The bots do not only register with a name but they enter a website too. The website are most of the time porn related, how to make money fast or how to get the longest...

The purpose of such registration is to get higher rankings in google because by default everyone can read the memberlist and google (and other search engines) search this forum regularly. Therefore it must be prevented that this can happen. One method I use is to make the memberlist readable for members only. Because the porn links are annoying only those members are visible in the memberlist who posted at least one message. Therefore members who didn't post yet are invisible for normal members. The disadvantage of this method is that if someone has not only forgotten his password but also his username he has no chance to look in the memberlist. He has to contact me by e-mail in that case.

It is a big problem with spam bots. For usual this forums gets 1-2 dozens fake registrations daily. To minimize the effort to handle that I use another method. If you need to know which one ask me by e-mail or choose one of these: http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=427852

More drastical consequences has the activation of the accounts by an admin (me in this case). If you change your username, e-mail address or if you forget to update your e-mail address when you changed it and the old one bounces (e. g. when you have chosen to get notified for new replies), your account is immediatly deactivated by the forum software. I'm usually notified by the forum software but sometimes that fails. I check that regularly but sometimes it may be that it takes longer until the account is activated again.

Regards

Volker