How long does it take for a new member who validated his membership to get admin approval so he can log on?
My good G gauge friend (90 years young) is waiting to get approval. How long can he wait, he’s already 90!
EXPEDITE!!!
Bob has a real job, so it may take a bit.
David Maynard said:
Bob has a real job, so it may take a bit.
If I had a real job I wouldn’t be here constantly posting on every thread so kudos to Bob !
When a new member signs up and activates he gets a conformation email saying that he now must get approved which could take up to 24 hours. This doesn’t bode well to new members when it doesn’t happen. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)
It has been so many years since I joined did our membership even get approved?
Missed the part what day and time he signed up.
Bob also informed people that he would be getting to the site much less often, if I remember right, could be up to a week to respond to stuff.
Greg
Doug Arnold said:
It has been so many years since I joined did our membership even get approved?
No. Only a crazy person would approve of us, Doug !..
I guess Bob’s experimenting again. Bob: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
On Tuesday you know, I drove home from Ken’s via Cape Cod where I met up with three guys to operate in one of their back yards, and I strongly recommended they sign up here. I sure hope this approval delay stuff doesn’t cause me to regret it.
I doubt the approval is necessary at all.
If a guy breaks the rules he can be cut off by Bob or straightened out by the rest of us PDQ.
Rules? Yup: like at a nearby club, there are no rules unless you break one.
I think its a formality to prevent confusers from automatically joining. I don’t believe it stops you from seeing what’s going on, you just get a lot more advertising and can look but not post. Just ask them to read all the posts before they reply to anything and since that will take a couple of years, Bob will have them approved.
Ric Golding said:
I think its a formality to prevent confusers from automatically joining. I don’t believe it stops you from seeing what’s going on, you just get a lot more advertising and can look but not post. Just ask them to read all the posts before they reply to anything and since that will take a couple of years, Bob will have them approved.
Ric,
That’s exactly what my old friend has been doing, reading. I just sent a PM to BD asking him to expedite this matter in light of this man’s age and what is happening. I hope he reads it! (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)
I agree. There are enough ways to address member problems. Bob is just creating more work than he needs.
No, Bob has it right, he needs several things, and he is set up well.
First, letting people join without approval means the spam bots (programs) will join and IMMEDIATELY post spam messages all over the site… we have seen this.
Also the restriction to post links protects members from dangerous links that can damage your computer.
Bob’s methods are right in line with currently accepted best practices and keeps the spam bots and hackers at bay.
Also, these methods lighten Bob’s load, and please remember that he told us he has less time for day to day management of the forum.
Greg
Thanks, you know this a heck of a lot better than I do!
When it was “relaxed” Doug, people took advantage of it, both humans and automated programs. Several times it was a huge mess, and besides the irritation of reading posts that were just junk, some were baiting members to other sites or “phishing”… and of course the worst were what looked like links to good or interesting information.
Unfortunately, since our hobby is trains, we are not all computer experts, and new ways to make an innocent link or even a pdf file take over your computer, like ransomware, these are being “found” on an almost daily basis.
It’s worth the pain of waiting keeping us safe. Anyone who has ever been hacked will agree, but we don’t want you to get hacked to “see the light” (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
Greg
The only problem I see with BD’s method of approval is sending the message that it will take “UP TO 24 hours” for approval and then the application just sits there awaiting approval and the new member can’t sign in. That is frustrating for the new member. If it can’t be done in “UP TO 24 hours”, then don’t say it will! It does not give a new member a good impression of this website. I understand why BD implemented all the safeguards and they work. Maybe BD needs a new membership czar if he can’t handle it himself? (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
I would guess that Bob forgot to update the text there, since he informed us all that things might take up to a week.
Perhaps a gentle request to Bob to update that message is in order? You could report a post on this thread and add a polite request to the report text?
Of course since all of us know the situation, we could also inform our friends of the possible time lag, supporting our site and Bob?
Greg
Thanks for the suggestion, I’ll go and dig for that template and change it.
To recap the signup process. A new user will sign up, and get sent a “Is this really you, click here” email. At the same time, I get an email saying a new member has signed up. The members go into a “New Member” queue. I will look every few hours at the new member queue for new members that have clicked their email, examine their account for obvious fraud/spam/crap, and then approve them. I will generally go back about two weeks worth of new users and check.
If the user never follows the instructions, or waits several weeks or months (it happens), its likely I will never know about it.
This discussion cleared up a few misunderstandings, mine included. Thanks to all for the input.
John Le Forestier said:
This discussion cleared up a few misunderstandings, mine included. Thanks to all for the input.
Sure, John. Like now we are supposed to all of sudden suspect you of understanding stuff??? (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)
Should we all start putting great trust in anyone that still uses loop hook couplers, buggy whips, or sucks his thumb for nutrition…