Computer Hope

Other => Other => Topic started by: Allan on August 11, 2009, 06:24:25 AM

Title: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 11, 2009, 06:24:25 AM
This is my first post here.

I've been trying to register for 3 days. Each time I submitted the registration form I received a message saying my username / email address / ip address was spam and to contact the admin. When I tried to send an email to ANY of the supplied addresses (tech support, web support, cust svce, etc) I couldn't for the very same reason - my emails were rejected as spam.

I tried registering with a different username and got in - turns out the username I wanted was already taken. Shouldn't your system have told me that rather than saying my info was spam? I wonder how many others can't register for precisely the same reason. And more important, there should be a mechanism in place for NON MEMBERS to be able to send an email to the admin for just this type of issue.

I'm the admin at tweaks.com forums and on the MVP support staff of neowin.net and came here to try to help out a little. It should be EASY to join a forum, not difficult.

Allan
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Helpmeh on August 11, 2009, 06:47:08 AM
This is my first post here.

I've been trying to register for 3 days. Each time I submitted the registration form I received a message saying my username / email address / ip address was spam and to contact the admin. When I tried to send an email to ANY of the supplied addresses (tech support, web support, cust svce, etc) I couldn't for the very same reason - my emails were rejected as spam.

I tried registering with a different username and got in - turns out the username I wanted was already taken. Shouldn't your system have told me that rather than saying my info was spam? I wonder how many others can't register for precisely the same reason. And more important, there should be a mechanism in place for NON MEMBERS to be able to send an email to the admin for just this type of issue.

I'm the admin at tweaks.com forums and on the support staff of neowin.net and came here to try to help out a little. It should be EASY to join a forum, not difficult.

Allan


If you have a dynamic IP, it may have been marked as a spammer's IP (with the intentions to prevent him/her from returning). I am not exactly sure why a taken username brought up a spam message, as when I tried to register my first time, I got a taken username message.  I am sorry for your issues, but at least now you have registered on the forum! :)
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 11, 2009, 06:51:13 AM
I appreciate the replay. And yes, I use a dynmaic IP address but it is the same one with the new username (ADG) as with the one that was rejected, so that could not have been the problem. Also, I cannot send emails using the CONTACT link at the top because they are still rejected as spam.

Still, as you say - I'm here now ;)

And one other strange problem. I can get into any forum except this one (OTHER) using IE8. When I click on OTHER from the main forum page I get a blank page. I can, however, get to a specific post in this forum. When I posted this thread originally I had to user a different browser.
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: kpac on August 11, 2009, 06:57:18 AM
Quote
I've been trying to register for 3 days. Each time I submitted the registration form I received a message saying my username / email address / ip address was spam and to contact the admin. When I tried to send an email to ANY of the supplied addresses (tech support, web support, cust svce, etc) I couldn't for the very same reason - my emails were rejected as spam.
If you're a forum admin, then you should understand IP addresses and the way they work. This is a very popular site which gets a lot of spam - too much. This is one of the ways to stop it and it works and has been since it was implemented. If you just happen to be blocked, then a simple email to the administrator (see above) would have sorted it. A few months ago, I was blocked from Wikipedia, apparently for vandalism, when in fact I had never edited an article on the site. What was the cause? The IP address.

Quote
And one other strange problem. I can get into any forum except this one (OTHER) using IE8. When I click on OTHER from the main forum page I get a blank page. I can, however, get to a specific post in this forum. When I posted this thread originally I had to user a different browser.
Your problem is more than likely IE8.
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Helpmeh on August 11, 2009, 07:03:34 AM
Your problem is more than likely IE8.
Too true. Use firefox!
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 11, 2009, 07:09:12 AM
If you just happen to be blocked, then a simple email to the administrator (see above) would have sorted it.
As I said, my emails were rejected as spam as well.

And IE8 is almost certainly the problem with getting into the OTHER sub forum - I already acknowledged that. I was pointing the problem out to you so you'd be aware that there may be a compatibility problem.
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: patio on August 11, 2009, 08:29:05 AM
Welcome Aboard Allan ! !

Enjoy your stay.

I know a few folks over at neowin...

patio.

P.S. Here is Nathan's (http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=1) contact info...he's the Admin and may be unaware of the situation...
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 11, 2009, 08:32:48 AM
Thanks for the welcome patio. Are you okay with my signature?
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: kpac on August 11, 2009, 10:17:24 AM
Quote
he's the Admin and may be unaware of the situation...
Situation?
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: patio on August 11, 2009, 11:30:41 AM
Thanks for the welcome patio. Are you okay with my signature?

I have no problem with it...i'll stroll over one of these days.
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 11, 2009, 11:53:57 AM
Look forward to it :)
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: BC_Programmer on August 12, 2009, 12:33:25 AM
if you have an e-mail signature that has a url it can be rejected by some mail servers as spam.

I assume you tried the e-mails on this page:

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/mail.cgi
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: hot dog on August 12, 2009, 01:15:55 AM

Your problem is more than likely IE8.

I'll second on that motion.......IE8 is poop  ;)

It's actually why I switched to firefox.... Whenever I use "Windows Update" after a fresh install, I'm sure not install IE8, only IE7..
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 12, 2009, 05:39:06 AM
I'll second on that motion.......IE8 is poop  ;)

It's actually why I switched to firefox.... Whenever I use "Windows Update" after a fresh install, I'm sure not install IE8, only IE7..
If you don't like IE that's fine - but it remains the most widely used and most popular browser. I also use Firefox and Opera but my first choice is IE. I somehow manage to enjoy it without bashing the competition ;)
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 12, 2009, 05:40:12 AM
if you have an e-mail signature that has a url it can be rejected by some mail servers as spam.

I assume you tried the e-mails on this page:

http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/mail.cgi
How could I even have an email signature if I hadn't signed up yet????
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: BC_Programmer on August 12, 2009, 06:54:17 AM
How could I even have an email signature if I hadn't signed up yet????

E-Mail. not forum.

Outlook, as an example, allows you to define a "footer" type signature that it plops onto all e-mails. I believe thunderbird does as well.

Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Helpmeh on August 12, 2009, 07:25:27 AM
Most online email sites allow you to do that as well.
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Allan on August 12, 2009, 12:42:16 PM
E-Mail. not forum.

Outlook, as an example, allows you to define a "footer" type signature that it plops onto all e-mails. I believe thunderbird does as well.


There's no way my outlook signature would have ANY bearing my my email address during registration. But let's just drop it, shall we?
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: hot dog on August 12, 2009, 03:38:04 PM
If you don't like IE that's fine - but it remains the most widely used and most popular browser.


never said I don't like Internet Explorer, I said I don't like version 8
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: BC_Programmer on August 12, 2009, 08:02:44 PM
There's no way my outlook signature would have ANY bearing my my email address during registration. But let's just drop it, shall we?

What I meant was, the mail server might filter based on content, as well (although a filter that excludes a e-mail as spam because it contains a url is a bit overzealous, so I doubt that's the case, anyway)

I used to use IE all the time myself... but I think, that was around the time of IE 5.5. My initial experience with Firefox was awful- my PC was a bit underpowered for it's cache mechanism, since it only had around 128MB of RAM... even today I am still suffering from the same old habits of having teensy bits of RAM- even though I now have 8GB to play with. :D
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Helpmeh on August 12, 2009, 08:49:26 PM
8GB? I have 512MB of ram and the same for video ram! Just over 1GB!
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: BC_Programmer on August 12, 2009, 08:50:19 PM
8GB? I have 512MB of ram and the same for video ram! Just over 1GB!

well then, all I can say is "in your face"  :P
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Helpmeh on August 13, 2009, 12:52:22 PM
well then, all I can say is "in your face"  :P
Just putting that into perspective.
Title: Re: Registration Problems
Post by: Quantos on August 15, 2009, 07:31:17 PM
Welcome aboard ADG.