A bit difficult to register...

[Leveret]

A note for the board administrators. The registration process was not an easy one.

I was given some letters to type in and three of them were so small and hard to recognize that I had to try a half dozen times. Requesting new ones gave me even worse options.

Asking the form to speak the letters required me to install quicktime, then even after downloading all 18GB of that it would only read one letter and then stop. Clicking on "use the direct link" under the "having problems" window did read the whole thing.

Then when I received the activation email, part of the link was highlighted and the rest was word wrapped on the next line, requiring a two part cut and paste.

But I finally made it!

Larger letters that arent so obscure that a real person cant make them out would be good.

Being able to play the letters in windows media format as well as quicktime would be nice.

Having the activation line be shorter or in a format such that it doesnt word wrap on my ISP's email (comcast) would be helpful.

[BigMoneyJim]

I'm sorry about the difficulty. We are using a free forum software package, and I don't think either of us are clever enough to make substantive changes in function.

The popularity of the forum made the image verification necessary to deter spammer bots. We had one spammer bot send multiple porn photos to all users via private message, and they weren't very happy about that. We still have periodic human spammers sign up and post, but they do so slowly enough that the moderators can zap them before they cause much commotion.

I just looked at the register process and I agree that the letters are too small, and worse it's blue-on-blue. I had some luck with clicking "request another image" repeatedly until I could read the letters (which were the same between images).

When I tried to listen to the letters it seemed to play via Windows player, but when I clicked on the direct link Quicktime came up. It's in .wav format, so really any player should be able to play it. I'm not sure yet how it's choosing which player to use.

If we can figure out a way to make it better we'll give it a shot.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Originally Posted by BigMoneyJim

I don't think either of us are clever enough to make substantive changes in function.

Perhaps you underestimate me.

And you're being way too cordial as well.

That having been said, it was a bit of a pain in the butt and could easily deter some folks.