Forum set up messages

I toggled a thing that was supposed to require members to acknowledge the acceptance of cookies because that's a question that has come up before, but what I found is that it required members to acknowledge it every time they logged in and that would be annoying, so I undid that.

Meanwhile, I've forgotten how to do some of the old stuff and am still learning the new stuff -- and there is some good new stuff -- while, at the same time, visiting with the grandchildren and son-in-law here, and getting some work done on my job, so we might not reach a point of maximum stability until I get back home again, but I intend to plug away at it in the meantime.

Much of this is stuff that I would normally have done before opening the forum, but I was under the impression that some of you wanted it to be opened ASAP so I thought I'd give you a place to meet in the meantime, so feel free to do that. Just don't be surprised if there's stuff you want that isn't here yet, or stuff that is here that you don't want, like spammers. That will be largely gone once I set up a custom CAPTCHA but that's a lengthy process that involves writing multiple questions, each with every possible valid answer, so that will take some time. It's fun, but it takes time.
 
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Name changes are something I remember how to do, so please tell me what you'd like. We will be enacting the first and last (middle name or initial optional) rule again because I think most people liked that, and I just think it's a good thing, but I haven't figured out where to place that message yet.
 
I am using a type of CAPTCHA that works invisibly, for the most part, detecting human-like behavior. If it determines that the behavior might be suspect, there might be a challenge such as you have probably come across on other sites, asking you to verify that you are human. I don't think it will, but if this gets to be too annoying let me know.

What it does, among other things, is to take interactions within the registration, login, and contact areas completely off of our server, allowing them here only when verified that they are likely human. This reduces the amount of resources taken from us by malicious bots trying to register, login, or contact forum members, while allowing search engine spiders to index the site, since search engine bots don't try to register, login, or contact people.

This won't prevent human spammers from getting in, but it should help considerably when it comes to malicious bots and DDOS attacks. I still plan on setting up the question and answer registration CAPTCHA that we used in the old forum when I get a chance, since I can use both of them.

It also does not save any information from the site, unlike some of the CAPTCHA choices, like one that Google runs, that collects data.
 
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I think that when we had the real-looking name requirement, that in itself helped a lot, since most of those spammers just use garbage names and don’t read the rules. Even people who were trying to register sometimes didn’t read the rules, but if it stops some of the spammers, it is a good thing.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
I think that when we had the real-looking name requirement, that in itself helped a lot, since most of those spammers just use garbage names and don’t read the rules. Even people who were trying to register sometimes didn’t read the rules, but if it stops some of the spammers, it is a good thing.
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Yeah, I haven't figured out how to present that message on this version yet, although I haven't spent a lot of time looking for it yet. I just spent a few hours trying to replace the XenForo logo with the text-based version of the forum name we used in the last forum. They changed the way that is done, but it didn't work for me, so I decided to leave that alone for now and do something I could do right.

There is a way, on this version of the software, to enforce a name that consists of at least two names, each starting with a capital letter, but it looked pretty complicated to me.
 
I think I toggled off the default of sending emails every time someone posts a message because I know that I don't like getting dozens of emails every day about messages that I have already read anyhow, and thought that might be the prevailing mood. So if you do want to get emails about this stuff, you can toggle that in your individual profiles. I just removed it as a default, but it still exists as an option. I think I left the default of sending an email when someone has invited you to a personal conversation, but I don't remember for sure.
 
SOCAdmin said:
Yeah, I haven't figured out how to present that message on this version yet, although I haven't spent a lot of time looking for it yet. I just spent a few hours trying to replace the XenForo logo with the text-based version of the forum name we used in the last forum. They changed the way that is done, but it didn't work for me, so I decided to leave that alone for now and do something I could do right.

There is a way, on this version of the software, to enforce a name that consists of at least two names, each starting with a capital letter, but it looked pretty complicated to me.
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If I remember right, you didn’t have anything that required 2 names before either, but you had it written in the sign-up instructions for people to read.
We always had people who registered with a username and then we had to message them and let them know that they needed a first/last name for this forum.
One lady kept changing hers back to a username and you had to change it back for her several times, so it was possible to register with any kind of name, but i think you watched the people who didn’t use F/L names because they were more apt to be spammers.
 
Yvonne Smith said:
If I remember right, you didn’t have anything that required 2 names before either, but you had it written in the sign-up instructions for people to read.
We always had people who registered with a username and then we had to message them and let them know that they needed a first/last name for this forum.
One lady kept changing hers back to a username and you had to change it back for her several times, so it was possible to register with any kind of name, but i think you watched the people who didn’t use F/L names because they were more apt to be spammers.
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I think I said on here somewhere that I used the name, Krystal "Shay" on the old SOC. I did not register this time with a last name because I simply forgot.🤦‍♀️ @SOCAdmin can add it when he has time, since we used a first and last name on this fourm in the past.
 
Krystal said:
I think I said on here somewhere that I used the name, Krystal "Shay" on the old SOC. I did not register this time with a last name because I simply forgot.🤦‍♀️ @SOCAdmin can add it when he has time, since we used a first and last name on this fourm in the past.
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Well Krystal, maybe your charmed. I think my computer is messed up or it doesn't like me, may have been something I said, to AI.
 
Did I make a mistake in posting some new games????
Please check it out and let me know if it is OK or how to do it if not...
If not, can you transfer the games I posted to be proper??
Gee,....I tried...
 
I know that things are going slowly here and I apologize. As you know, 2.0 of the forum went live while we were traveling to Maryland and, since then, a whole lot of things have been going on in my life, such as the death of one of my two cats, and now my brother's hospitalization and eventual outcome, all of which have taken a great deal of my time, my focus, and my money.
 
SOCAdmin said:
I know that things are going slowly here and I apologize. As you know, 2.0 of the forum went live while we were traveling to Maryland and, since then, a whole lot of things have been going on in my life, such as the death of one of my two cats, and now my brother's hospitalization and eventual outcome, all of which have taken a great deal of my time, my focus, and my money.
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We all want you to take care of yourself, Ken. This place is not even a distance priority. You got us a home we can meet in. We'll pick out curtains later.
 
SOCAdmin said:
I know that things are going slowly here and I apologize. As you know, 2.0 of the forum went live while we were traveling to Maryland and, since then, a whole lot of things have been going on in my life, such as the death of one of my two cats, and now my brother's hospitalization and eventual outcome, all of which have taken a great deal of my time, my focus, and my money.
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Don't worry about it Ken, your doing a great job.Especally under the circumstances.
 
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