Question about joining forums

[Matt P]

Gentlemen,

Recently I have tried to join two different bourbon forums only to be denied membership based on my yahoo email. If it had been based on my character I would understand, but both forums will not accept email addresses from any free site like yahoo or gmail. I don't have any other addresses besides my work address and I'm not going to use that one. Guess I'm destined to lurk those sites.

Anyone know why? I assume it is an issue with trolls and bots.

Maybe I should just go Groucho Marx and refuse to belong to any club that would have me.

Except this one.

 

[AdrianR]

Sounds like an exclusivity test based on whether you have your own paid hosting service or not.

 

[SiBurning]

It's too easy to steal or hijack those accounts or create new ones without verifying who you are. They want something that actually validates you're who you say you are, or at least that can be tracked somehow, ideally by having to actually pay for it. Helps keep spammers and crooks out. Also makes it harder for people to sign up with multiple accounts .

 

[SliceOfLife]

Try Gmail. People seem to think it's harder to get into than Yahoo for some reason.

 

[Gruder]

Matthew, I feel certain that the problem is spammers. You'd be shocked by the number of spam operations that use free online email addresses to register for forums. It seems likely that the forums you mention have set up membership blocks on certain common email addresses to limit spam accounts.

 

[Matt P]

Oh well, figured it was something like that. I can set up an account with my ISP. I really don't want to have another account to monitor. I'll have to figure out if it is worth it to me.

 

[Sullybob]

Oh well, figured it was something like that. I can set up an account with my ISP. I really don't want to have another account to monitor. I'll have to figure out if it is worth it to me.

I have had the exact same problem. When I told the site admins that I use Gmail for all my email they told me that if I had an internet connection then by default I had an email account and that I needed to call my provider and get the account set up if I wanted to be a member.
Guess what?
I'm not a member.

I understand that you are doing this to keep the spammers off the site, but come on. I'm willing to email you and try and find a way to use the email account that I have had for years, and you wont let me because of spammers. Sounds like the spammers have won to me.

 

[Matt P]

... Sounds like the spammers have won to me.

My thoughts exactly. Sad state of affairs.

 

[FiXXXer]

I haven't run into that problem much, but I use a Hotmail account as my primary email, and a Yahoo account as my secondary email. You could try using a less popular free email provider, and Yahoo actually has several "alternate" domain names that you can use, such as Rocketmail and Ymail, which may be different enough to get by the filters.

 

[dpm802]

I've never heard of anyone running into the problem you're having. I can respect that web-ops would want to eliminate spammers, but this is ridiculous. There are more than enough ways to verify a real user, and separate out those that are bots or spammers.

I've learned the hard way not to rely on paid e-Mail accounts, for the simple reason that I know I won't have them forever. I've had paid eMail addresses at MSN, AOL, Verizon and Comcast down through the years, but these are only for communications to and from the ISP.

I stick to the free accounts for general communications, because I know that I'll always have them, regardless of which ISP I use at the moment.

 

[TimmyBoston]

I check out a knife forum that requires a non-free email address, like your ISP provider or something like that. I can't speak for the forums you mention, but most do it to prevent spam and trolls. I think it's a very effective means to control that, but it also eliminates a lot of good people too. Good luck in your search.

In terms of looking for bourbon info, we've got a ton of great bourbon info here in the Speakeasy. Check it out.

 

[proxymoron]

I'm with Groucho on this one. Less thinkin', more drinkin'!

 

[dpm802]

Just out of curiosity, I tried sending an email from my Hotmail account to myself here at BadgerandBlade. It didn't come through here, nor did I get a bounce-back notice at Hotmail.

 

[Zenas]

They think they're better than you. The beer forums are always glad to have you and your yahoo account though.

 

[mmack66]

I use hotmail and I have run into this problem. Luckily, I get 5 free email addresses with my roadrunner account, so I just created an email address with them to use for just such occasions.

 

[Go West Young Man]

You only need the alternate address to get signed up, most boards will let you change your email address once you have a confirmed membership in place.

 

[Sullybob]

Just out of curiosity, I tried sending an email from my Hotmail account to myself here at BadgerandBlade. It didn't come through here, nor did I get a bounce-back notice at Hotmail.

You have a B&B email address? How the heck do I get one of those?

You only need the alternate address to get signed up, most boards will let you change your email address once you have a confirmed membership in place.

I didn't find that to be the case. I joined FoodieForums with my work email account because they wouldn't accept my gmail account. When I left my job I tried to change my email account to gmail and they wouldn't let me. I contacted to site owner and he said that he couldn't allow me to use the gmail account because he would have to change the email filters and that would allow the spammers to access the board. I had been a member in good standing for quite a while at that point.

 

[dpm802]

You have a B&B email address? How the heck do I get one of those?

I don't have a B&B email. I was just trying it as an experiment.

Some of the VBulletin sites I belong to offer email accounts to the members, but I couldn't remember which ones. Apparently, B&B does not.

 

[xriley]

It's too easy to steal or hijack those accounts or create new ones without verifying who you are. They want something that actually validates you're who you say you are, or at least that can be tracked somehow, ideally by having to actually pay for it. Helps keep spammers and crooks out. Also makes it harder for people to sign up with multiple accounts .

I agree with this as the reason fixed email accounts are required and I also agree with the principal.

It's easy and cheap to set your own domain up if your ISP doesn't provide you with an email address. Just requires a little effort and not a lot of knowledge.

 

[Y2K]

Oh well, figured it was something like that. I can set up an account with my ISP. I really don't want to have another account to monitor. I'll have to figure out if it is worth it to me.

You don't have to monitor it. Setup an auto-forward on that account to forward all emails to the primary account that you use (yahoo or whatever). Problem solved, never login into that account again. I do it all the time. Keep in mind that moderators on all free forums do the moderator work absolutely free at their spare time (and it does requires a good amount of time and effort). So anything that can make their life easier as well as improve the forums overall by limiting the amount of spam and/or not-so-good members is a good thing in my book. It's for your own benefit.