Awful issues with registration

I messaged Vitesse about this but they haven't read my message so I wanted to post it here:

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Hey. I've just been granted access to the forum but I wanted to share some feedback which I hope helps the forum.

I signed up to my account some time ago, confirmed my email and waited for moderation approval. It seems the approval never happened, yet I was able to log in, read posts but not post myself.

After some time I tried another account registration, but the same issue. My account never got approved, no notice or reason was given and I decided then to try and contact forum admin about it.

The obvious step was using the contact us link at the bottom of the forum I filled this form in twice but received no reply and my account remained locked.

I then tried to contact admin or a mod via pm but my account didn't have the permissions to do so.

I discovered the only way I could send a message was by visiting a users profile and reporting them. I did this, and also messaged autosport on Twitter.

Finally I have access to post after such a long time. I just wanted to let you know that this potentially may be happening to other registrations that seen to get lost in the system. Likewise there's no way to properly contact anyone if registration doesn't work.

I've read some other topics in the feedback sub forum and seen that I'm not the only one. Another user even had to contact someone on a different forum about their account not being approved.

Of course I'm familiar with spam filtering and denial of posting as a new member but I only registered using my home ip address, nothing suspicious like a vpn proxy or data saver. Not only this, but I successfully confirmed my email and still was denied!

The icing on the cake is not receiving any correspondence. No message to say account was unapproved, no way to contact anyone and to seek help and no explanation other than initial 'waiting for account to be accepted' after email confirmation.

So I'm glad to be in finally, but I wanted to pass my experience on so hopefully it can corrected in the case of future registrations like me. I'm not sure what did it in the end, reporting or twitter, but certainly the experience of registering is enough to put anyone off, so I hope this helps you improve the system in the future!

Yup....I have one account here which I started years ago and I could not regain access even though the account still exists. When I re-registered it took the creation of three separate accounts to actually get through the process successfully. 

Mentioned it at the time and I don't think it was believed. I recall an admin checking and finding no evidence on their side of my multiple attempts to register yet I had the emails in my various inboxes. 

I had actually read the PM you sent as I get them all copied to my personal email. To address all your points would take far too long and possibly reveal some of the other techniques we use, but having looked back over the history - and bear in mind we're talking about over three months ago, since when we have had thousands of registrations, the vast majority from spammers - the following things stand out:

 

1 The time zone which was set on the first registration didn't tally with the geographical location of your IP address.

2 The ISP you registered from, while reputable, is - in our experience - the source of a lot of spam registrations.

3 There was no obvious reason for your first registration - no favourite team or driver stated.

4 An image search on the avatar on your first registration led me to another forum where you were apparently a moderator and - while the email you used to register tallied with the username there, it didn't tally with the one you used to register here. We get lots of registrations from spoofed and/or compromised email addresses. So I'm afraid that just looked suspicious.

 

Taken together, all those things led me to the conclusion that you might be a spammer. Then you registered another account from the same IP ...

 

The lack of communications is being addressed, but it's a slow process, for reasons I won't go into. But if I sent out a 'sorry we don't think you're real' or 'we think you're a returning banned member' to every registration we rejected it would take hours every day. And, since many of the spam registrations are confirmed by email, despite being obvious spam - ultimately pointless, merely proving they'd found a live email address and thus attracting more spam. There are some previously banned members who have attempted to set up thirty-plus new accounts and ten or a dozen attempts is not uncommon.

 

And it's not as if I get paid for this ...

All this does is just showcase the gigantic, monstrous problems involved with most things internet....

... and no. I absolutely will not call them challenges!

Edited by proviz, 03 January 2021 - 17:13.

How was I supposed to know you received my message? No reply and it's sitting there unread. If you did read it then I'm not going to know unless it's snorkeled acknowledged.

So basically what you're saying is my manual account approval was denied on the basis you thought I was a spammer. Whilst I don't really see how a residential ip address from a cable company in the USA can be seen as spam and flag me as spam.. Especially if I pass captcha and the Schumacher test.. However I accept that sometimes manual approval may be required.

I think there's a clear problem with the automatic spam filter.

Regarding your points. I'm not quite sure which points refer to why my account was initially flagged as spam, or which are related to a decision to manually not approve my account:

1.I didn't even see an option to set a time zone. If it defaults always to GMT and there's no option to even set it when you register then maybe that tripped the system? I just checked again registering a new account on my phone and there's no time zone setting.
2. My ISP is spectrum that have roughly 30 million subscribers in the USA. I live in a small City in Michigan. Flagging that as spam would be akin to flagging anyone with Sky internet in the UK living somewhere like Bournemouth as spam.
3. Maybe these should be required fields if they are used to determine manual account approvals. Not everyone is going to put favorites here, not just spammers.
4. The email I used is the same email as my moderator account on the other forum. Still, I don't mind if you thought I was spam, but no message, email or anything with a way to prove otherwise?

What really is a shame is there was no way to even contact anyone about it and my messages I sent using the contact link are ignored.

So not only do I think the system used to check spammers to begin with seems very rudimentary and over zealous I don't really mind that your own manual judgement was my account was spam. What I think is strange is no replies to my contact requests and no communication to appeal account denial.

As you saw, I myself volunteer to help on another forum so I understand you may do this on a voluntary basis more than anyone, but I also assume it's rather important that legitimate users don't get turned away. Both from a community point of view and a financial one.

I'm only giving feedback because I don't want it to happen to people in the future because I know it will put 99% people off. I've never ever had these issues with any other message board.

Anyway, the feedback is there and I'm willing to help any way I can. I hope it doesn't get swept under the rug because it's clear from other threads here and from proviz posting here that I'm not the only one.

 

3 There was no obvious reason for your first registration - no favourite team or driver stated.

 

And the non-sequitur of the week award goes to...

And the non-sequitur of the week award goes to...

That question actually helps me greatly in identifying spammers, because it will often be auto-filled by bots with something which flags the account up as dubious, like a country name or the username they've put in the registration.

 

Leaving it empty is not necessarily a reason not to approve an  account, but can - as demonstrated above - be a factor.

That question actually helps me greatly in identifying spammers, because it will often be auto-filled by bots with something which flags the account up as dubious, like a country name or the username they've put in the registration.

 

Leaving it empty is not necessarily a reason not to approve an  account, but can - as demonstrated above - be a factor.

OK, fair enough. But not everyone has a favourite team/driver - I think I probably left it blank. Maybe a different motorsport-related question would be preferable with an asterisk to say it's required.

Not everyone has a favourite team or driver. Maybe that's why two of my attempts to register a while back didn't work - not that I would have known because my attempts to contact admin were fruitless.  I don't recall it saying that the answers would affect account approval. 

 

Regarding the OP's geographical location not matching time stamp....perhaps OP uses a VPN? I don't recall anything in the sign-up process which says "If you use a VPN please disable it as your account won't be approved if your local time doesn't match your apparent geographical location".

 

I do appreciate that being admin/mod isn't easy. I admin elsewhere and it's a thankless task...so please see this as constructive criticism. I'm glad that someone else had similar problems to me attempting to register. 

Not everyone has a favourite team or driver. Maybe that's why two of my attempts to register a while back didn't work - not that I would have known because my attempts to contact admin were fruitless.  I don't recall it saying that the answers would affect account approval. 

 

Regarding the OP's geographical location not matching time stamp....perhaps OP uses a VPN? I don't recall anything in the sign-up process which says "If you use a VPN please disable it as your account won't be approved if your local time doesn't match your apparent geographical location".

 

I do appreciate that being admin/mod isn't easy. I admin elsewhere and it's a thankless task...so please see this as constructive criticism. I'm glad that someone else had similar problems to me attempting to register. 

Definitely not using a VPN, just a residential IP address that points to my local city in Michigan, USA. And a small city of that.

 

If every account goes to manual approval then I can understand why some new registrations may not be approved, but there's no communication or anything to let you know either way.

If only certain accounts go to manual approval because they flag up as spam by an automatic spam filter, then something is wrong if its flagging me as spam. And not just me either, I'm certain there are lots of other people with the problem. So far in this thread 2 people have mentioned the same problem and we've been able to document it whereas 99% of people that have the problem can't, since they can't get to this stage to begin with.

 

But the last problem of course is that the contact form either doesn't work, or doesn't go to forum admin, and there's no way to pm a mod or admin unless your account has been approved.

 

Definitely intending this criticism to be constructive, I thought I'd mention it because its very, very unusual and I'm sure it puts a lot of others off about posting. I mod myself on another forum so I understand it can be frustrating, especially if there's no backing from ownership. But I hope for the sake of the community it can be ironed out and improved.

 

If a someone reading without posting access reads this; try what I did. Contact Autosport on twitter via DM or report a random users profile on here.

Edited by dannyricsshoe, 11 January 2021 - 07:06.

I had similar problems to this...

I first registered at the end of 2018. I was at work at the moment, and our company uses VPN or something, so it is possible my geo location was different to my IP location. I could read and everything, but not post.

I registered again in the summer of 2020, this time I was on my mobile phone, connected to 4G network, no VPN, so there shouldn't have been an issue with locations. But again, no approval.

Both times I left my profiles empty, but I never thought that was a factor. Whenever I register somewhere, I leave that stuff empty. Especially since the profile page looks like something straight out of early 2000s (asking for ICQ, MSN... lol)

 

At some point, I found some email on Autosport, something like admin@autosportforums, not sure, anyway, when I wrote, soon I got the automatic reply that that email doesn't exist anymore.

I also wrote a message via the contact form also on Autosport, but still nothing.

I also contacted Autosport via Facebook Messenger, nothing.

 

Then I saw this thread, reported Vitesse2, wrote in report message about my issues with the registration but still nothing.

Finally I decided to make the third account where I filled the profile nicely and even wrote in the Occupation that this is a real account, not spam and after a few days confirmation email finally came

 

Anyway, if necessary I can provide other two accounts so you can delete them, or even better, enable the first one so people can see that I'm not a total newbie, but that I was here since 2018. But however, I'm just happy I can post finally

There is definitely an issue relating to the forum in that it is hosted by Autosport, but they appear to have absolutely zero to do with it. I did have an issue ongoing for months last year, where I had previously requested my forum account be closed in 2019 (I needed a self-imposed internet sabbatical) and then wanted to return early summer last year. It took months for me to get through to anyone to request the resurrection of my account and I tried multiple @autosport.com addresses I found, as well as filling out various online forms, none of which ever received a response from Autosport (despite the forms having an option regarding the forum) and the irony is that you can't DM a moderator unless you are already on the forum and there are no alternate contact options direct to the forum itself.

 

I was very grateful to Vitesse2 in the end, but still have no idea how my message/s finally got through. 

There is definitely an issue relating to the forum in that it is hosted by Autosport, but they appear to have absolutely zero to do with it. I did have an issue ongoing for months last year, where I had previously requested my forum account be closed in 2019 (I needed a self-imposed internet sabbatical) and then wanted to return early summer last year. It took months for me to get through to anyone to request the resurrection of my account and I tried multiple @autosport.com addresses I found, as well as filling out various online forms, none of which ever received a response from Autosport (despite the forms having an option regarding the forum) and the irony is that you can't DM a moderator unless you are already on the forum and there are no alternate contact options direct to the forum itself.

 

I was very grateful to Vitesse2 in the end, but still have no idea how my message/s finally got through. 

I had no idea these were broken, I am going to contact the magazine (obvious not via this route) and let them know about this, thank you.

I'm not sure if they are broken as such, or just that they are either inundated with spam, or Autosport don't check or act on them.

I had no idea these were broken, I am going to contact the magazine (obvious not via this route) and let them know about this, thank you.

I don't think the contact form works either. Should be a direct and separate way to contact admin from the forum imo. Not a link to the magazine contact form.

Also seems like every new account seems to go to manual approval despite two factor authentication. Makes no sense.

I had similar problems to this...
I first registered at the end of 2018. I was at work at the moment, and our company uses VPN or something, so it is possible my geo location was different to my IP location. I could read and everything, but not post.
I registered again in the summer of 2020, this time I was on my mobile phone, connected to 4G network, no VPN, so there shouldn't have been an issue with locations. But again, no approval.
Both times I left my profiles empty, but I never thought that was a factor. Whenever I register somewhere, I leave that stuff empty. Especially since the profile page looks like something straight out of early 2000s (asking for ICQ, MSN... lol)

At some point, I found some email on Autosport, something like admin@autosportforums, not sure, anyway, when I wrote, soon I got the automatic reply that that email doesn't exist anymore.
I also wrote a message via the contact form also on Autosport, but still nothing.
I also contacted Autosport via Facebook Messenger, nothing.

Then I saw this thread, reported Vitesse2, wrote in report message about my issues with the registration but still nothing.
Finally I decided to make the third account where I filled the profile nicely and even wrote in the Occupation that this is a real account, not spam and after a few days confirmation email finally came

Anyway, if necessary I can provide other two accounts so you can delete them, or even better, enable the first one so people can see that I'm not a total newbie, but that I was here since 2018. But however, I'm just happy I can post finally

So you went to manual approval too. Seems very odd. BTW this was exactly the same as me. Your manual approval was done based on responses to those questions, mine by contacting auto sport on Twitter.

To be honest if the magazine isn't interested in this site then the forum is probably better moving away and starting a new community.

My assumption is the forum only remains because it is another source of advertising revenue.

I am pretentious enough to think having a group like us attached is a huge plus for a dedicated auto racing magazine. A pretty good chunk of us likely do have paid subscription.

Yes, registration is not a good process. 

Yes, registration is not a good process. 

Apologies for the delay on yours.

 

However, we are being deluged with spam registrations at present, so it's sometimes difficult to see the wood for the trees. Since I okayed yours earlier today we have had eight new registrations, of which only one looks in any way vaguely legitimate.

 

We realise that it can be frustrating waiting for approval - and I'll also acknowledge that we may inevitably make mistakes in rejecting legitimate applications - but if we were to allow unfettered approval, with no pre-vetting, the forum would rapidly become unusable and flooded with spam. If we thought our members wanted to be offered viagra, dodgy investments, other non-prescription medicines, bitcoin, Australian breakdown services, porn or Indian removal services we'd happily give up vetting everything.

 

To give you an idea of the numbers, we have just surpassed 100,000 registrations. Over 57 thousand of those are banned, with the vast majority of them (99% +) being spammers. The 'New member' group - people with fewer than 5 posts - comprises more than thirty thousand; a lot of those are probably undetected spammers who never returned after registering. We have blocked thousands of IP addresses and email domains; one day recently - in a three-hour period - we had over seventy registrations, all from the same disposable email domain and the same IP. All those had been confirmed, so without manual validation the mods would have had a major clean-up to do ...

First, many thanks to the Admins for approving my account.  For the record, it took about 5 days to get my account approved, so you do have to be patient. 

 

Cheers,

-dave

I hope this is the right place to raise this….

A US racing friend of mine registered for the Autosport Forum a week ago, BUT his registration still hasn’t been approved to allow him to post.
I understand he validated his email address pretty much immediately.
Is there a reason for this delay?
I would assume if there was an issue you would have been in contact with him?

Many thanks

I hope this is the right place to raise this….

A US racing friend of mine registered for the Autosport Forum a week ago, BUT his registration still hasn’t been approved to allow him to post.
I understand he validated his email address pretty much immediately.
Is there a reason for this delay?
I would assume if there was an issue you would have been in contact with him?

Many thanks

Pretty sure I've identified this one, despite not knowing the username. The email address looked somewhat iffy. Now admitted - if there's still a problem, PM me!

Op is not only one with that problem, I've have tried years(maybe 5y or more) to register here, never succeed, before now(it seems).

Used all kind of email-addresses, because one big problem is that when your registration attempt get locked, it also lock used email-address,

which of course it stupid, so you can't try again with your normal/main-email, or work email etc etc.

 

Let's see if this time I finally got working user account on here. But really wouldn't had believed that it's would have been that difficult. Had to also

choose other user name than which I would normally choosed(I'm mostly "Raikku" in all forums out there).

 

-just me from Finland

Op is not only one with that problem, I've have tried years(maybe 5y or more) to register here, never succeed, before now(it seems).

Used all kind of email-addresses, because one big problem is that when your registration attempt get locked, it also lock used email-address,

which of course it stupid, so you can't try again with your normal/main-email, or work email etc etc.

 

Let's see if this time I finally got working user account on here. But really wouldn't had believed that it's would have been that difficult. Had to also

choose other user name than which I would normally choosed(I'm mostly "Raikku" in all forums out there).

 

-just me from Finland

Okay, just to address these quickly.

 

Firstly, no bulletin board software - or indeed any sort of account software - will allow duplicate accounts linked to the same email. It's a very basic security feature - if it was allowed spammers could and would register hundreds of accounts per hour. And banned members could simply set up a new account.

 

Secondly, again for pretty obvious security reasons, user names have to be unique. I'm only Vitesse2 because Vitesse - my preferred username - was already taken when I registered. An account was registered under the user name Raikku in 2012.

 

Thirdly, your other emails would not be blocked. However, multiple attempted registrations from the same IP address do flag up as suspicious and I know that my predecessors on approvals were sometimes in the habit of blocking previously used IP addresses. So that may be why you couldn't register.

 

I have been seriously considering blocking a number of legitimate email domains - mostly Russian ones - because of the large number of spam registrations which emanate from them. However, the one which is currently the biggest problem is actually Gmail.

In minimum, I think each registration should be checked against the paying Autosport Plus user database. It's more than frustrating that the forum registration fails the spam check for a Autosport Plus user.

 

In addition, there should be an email address (forum support) clearly listed somewhere for situations like this.

In minimum, I think each registration should be checked against the paying Autosport Plus user database. It's more than frustrating that the forum registration fails the spam check for a Autosport Plus user.

 

In addition, there should be an email address (forum support) clearly listed somewhere for situations like this.

Do the letters GDPR ring any bells? We do not have - nor do we want or need, even if it was allowed - access to Autosport's subscription details. And if we did, we would have no consistent way of tying in the two unless the emails matched. Even then, there could be discrepancies on IP addresses which might flag up as suspicious, and we have no way of knowing if it's a hacked email account. Lots of people - myself included - use different email addresses for different purposes, so something like an Autosport subscription would be on a different email address to the ones I use for forum registrations, for news comment sections, for banking, for bills, for pensions and for government websites. I actually have ten active email addresses with six different providers and I doubt that's particularly unusual.

 

I agree that it's probably frustrating, but you also need to see it from our point of view.

 

Risil maintains an email account - autosport.mods (at) gmail.com

With attitudes such as these no wonder there are ‘awful issues’ with registration

 

Do the letters GDPR ring any bells? …….

 

….………. but you also need to see it from our point of view.

Edited by jimgraftonhscc, 04 January 2023 - 06:49.

?

C’mon Adam. You know why.

This forum is now using a very old version of the IPS software perhaps an update to the latest supported version could help with the spam registrations…