Daily post

[Spannerdude]

Kerry, Joe,
is there anything we can learn from the ones that get deleted?

There is definite international flavour to the forum, are there a disproportionate number of failed attempts that maybe don't have English as their first language? Maybe there is a need for a mirror of instructions in Spanish and perhaps Swedish or something

Are people overwhelmed by the amount of instruction it takes to sign up? Maybe a short welcome video might be easier to digest?

Personally I don't like to enter my personal details into any website I don't know. The rules here are pretty hardcore, maybe a welcome video might offer a "friendly face" that will give people the confidence to fill in the membership?

If there is something that can be done up front to save you work later, there are plenty of members that would be glad to help out.

[Joe Hartson]

Stuart, The registrations that get deleted are normally those that time out, 7 days, and never come back up. Others don't read the instructions and don't fill in the profile or name or post an introduction. We will correct information that new registrations forget or get wrong if we have the information to do that. Most of the time the information missing is their name. If it is in the introduction we will correct the signature. If they don't put a name in the introduction we can't do much.

The ones caught by the spam software are mostly spammers. I have never seen any that are rejected for their IP or email address to be wrong. Sometimes the user name they select has been use by a spammer and the registration is rejected. Many email us and we help them get registered.

We have worked with several of the overseas people that have some problems with English and if they make an honest attempt we can usually get them through the process. They normally don't post much anyway but want to view the board and use a translator to read the board.

The biggest problem is that people don't read any of the instructions posted and assume that this is like all the other sites. We are different and know that and are not going to change what we do. This site is cleaner that most of the other sites. We are looking for quality members we really don't care about the number of member we have. Most site care about the number of members because they have advertisers that pay them. We don't have any paid advertising. The site is funded out of our pocket and that is the way it is going to remain. We do not have an automatic approval process for making people members. This is all done manually so we can make sure the new member isn't some undesirable, spammer, directory attacker, email harvester,etc. that we don't want on the site.

We are trying the daily bump with the instructions and this thread to see if it will reduce the amount of time we spend taking care of the site. If this doesn't work we may change the registration process, limit registrations to one day a week, make the site a closed forum with just the members we have now. Time will tell what we do. Hopefully the people that want to be members will start reading the instructions and follow them.

Personally I am not interested in making a video, but thanks for your concern.

[VetteMemphis]

Originally Posted by Jawno

I feel I must add my comments here as well. I am mostly a lurker here but I am a regular reader because I get a tremendous amount of useful information here. I consider this one of the best forums in existence and salute you guys for all you do to keep it going.

What he said. I've learned more about shaping metal from this board in a few short months than I imagined possible. As an old A&P/IA, I've truly had questions that were answered here after decades of searching. Thanks for what you guys do for the rest of us.

[Coppretta]

Thank you, I am starting to try and catch up on my reading now. I Really appreciate my favorite forum and those who work so hard making it Go!

[thingsthatfly2]

Runs like one finely oiled sewing machine from my view! I did have a hard time with the type the letters in the box thingie.

Thanks for all your hard work!

[barry larson]

Just want to add a big thankyou to the guys who look after this sight......Look foward to see what is new each day....Wish i had more to offer in the metal shapeing end of things...Couple new bead rollers being made right now..will get pic out soon. Thanks to all.......Barry L

[Truckntran Bill]

I run , with major assistance, the Jeep website www.thecj3apage.com and know how hard it is to get folks to do what you want to join up. We went from over 2500 members to a hundred or so when we shifted websites and forum software, and are slowly getting back to a well running site again after almost a year. It amazes me the people who sign up and never return. We were ready to give a gift to our 300th member and he never returned once he joined up. Weird. But I guess life gets in the way, and the site you joined at 2 am in a fit of insomnia may never make it to the lists of sites you go to daily.

But, if I go back thru our member list now (on the jeep page), I can say i recognize most of the people who stuck with us, and we have very few or NO spam accounts , as compared to the 50 percent or more we had previously. I have a feeling it is the same here.. It is really cool what freedom you get not being tied to anyones advertising dollars.

Carry on! You guys are doing the greatest job !!

[RockHillWill]

To Kerry, Joe and others: Thanks for all the work you folks do on this site. I look at it every day, at least once and appreciate being able to peek into so many intelligent minds.