Pending memberships - clearing a backlog

[Provost]

As some of you may have noticed, we've finally gotten our long awaited software upgrade.

One tremendous bonus that comes with that is the spambot filter that tends to weed out non-human subscribers.

However, I have about 600 names in the "awaiting validation que." I simply don't have the time to go through them all, so here's how we're going to resolve this.

I've gone through my PM box and validated all that had notified me. Tom has sent me a list that had contacted him. I'll get to those in a few minutes.

However, if you haven't contacted either of us, there will be a two week window of opportunity (until June 3) for you to do so. If you don't do it by then, I'll purge the list and start fresh. You'll have to sign up again after that date.

So, to sum up: If you want membership here and don't have it yet, please send me a PM and we'll get that taken care of. If my box overflows, give me a day or two and try again.

Thanks for your patience while we got this update in place. I anticipate it will be smoother sailing from here on.

Provost

[tompritchett]

If my box overflows, give me a day or two and try again.

Or contact me and I will relay it to the Provost when he has time to empty his box.

[Provost]

So far only two people have asked. I think we can handle this volume.

[Provost]

I am going to erase all pending memberships in about five minutes, under the assumption that they either a) are a spambot who predates our new spambot filter or b) didn't read the notice that they needed to send me a PM. Either way, it works out to my not being able to sort through 865 applications for membership. A new broom sweeps clean.

If you read this and have applied for membership prior to 3PM on Wednesday June 3, 2009 and haven't gotten a validation email... well, you have to apply again.

It is my sincere hope that this will greatly expedite our membership process and allow us to get back to much faster service.

Respectfully,

Provost

[Provost]

Out of the 30+ new membership applications in the que today there was only one that had PMed me to validate they were a human. Two others appear to be genuine, so I validated them. The others were still spambots, almost exclusively through gmail.

Therefore, if you're applying using gmail as your email of record here, and you want to use a wacky username like aweoirtoitart@gmail.com be prepared to PM me right away or your membership will be summarily deleted.

I'd hoped that the new software would eliminate this problem but there are at least three spambot organizations out there that seem to have been able to penetrate our filter. Grrrr.

However, the volume of "successful" spambot applications seems to be way down and we'll just have to refine our system further.

I DEEPLY regret having to take measures to screen folks so carefully to get access here, but I hope you will all understand and click the "alert" button when one of those do sneak through.

Respectfully,

Provost

[Provost]

I've just upgraded the "type in the word" filter on new memberships. We'll see if this is able to eliminate the spambots entirely or not.

I thought I should post this here in case someone is completely shut out and doesn't understand why. Please email me if you have concerns and can't get to post a PM.

Provost

[Provost]

Only eight new membership applications today. One PMed me and one was a spambot, the rest looked legitimate so I passed them through. Glad to have new members, thanks for signing up!

Provost