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Forum Name = E-mail Address


Wazoo

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Bringing a PM out into the light, solving the "closed Topic" issue <g>

Sorry to bother you again (closed topic again). Noting the latest user at this time has done the opposite to the recommendation and indeed made Forum name = e-mail address, I wonder if people are just seeing the announcement, looking no further than the title - "Ah, they want me to register for the forum with my email addy - of course!"

Perhaps a bit of "human engineering" is needed? Maybe change topic title to "Forum name <> e-mail address" or "Forum name ≠ e-mail address" or "For pity's sake DON'T use your email address for your forum name!!"

For starters, that last user caused me to update the Forum FAQ, noting that the "e-mail posting mung" mod made no difference in the registration/validation process. The request/suggestion/instructions to not use an e-mail address exist there also (though noting that many registered long before this FAQ came to light)

When I posted that Announcement, there were approximately 160 users with this (possible) issue. Four folks hit me for a change, (at least) 2 have since registered doing the same thing. Although there is almost always a number of "Guests" showing, (and it must be noted that the Google bot also shows up as "Guest") ... it has to be assumed that those folks aren't reading the Announcements or FAQs. For example, since that item was first posted, the 'stats' say 6825 Topic views have occurred. The Announcements section received 521 of those, this specific entry is now showing 244 views (subtract my editing, my additional posts, my re-looks, the Moderators' looks and edits,*yeah, I screwed up) .. your views ...... let's round off the "real" views at possibly 200) A quick spot-check of the approcimately 30 users with a "display name that ends in .com" .. a dozen on the first page I looked at haven't been back since the day they registered ...??? I'd say thus far, most of those looks were by folks that saw the "Announcement" and read it just for that reason alone, then saw that it wasn't applicable <g>

Noting that the Forum FAQ (dating back to June for the starter post) is now only showing 2723 views ... but I'm sure a vast number of those also include the many, many, many edits to took to build it ....

Not that I'm discounting the human engineering of the Topic Title .. but my personal opinion is that as in most any support venue, most folks arrive with "I have a problem and want it fixed now" ... and the fact that they have no one else around with the same problem makes it apparent that it must be a "new" problem. Nevermind that taking the time to search, look, read things would possibly change their mood, maybe even running the risk of forgetting why they came here to begin with <g> So, I'm just floating along that it doesn't matter how it's typed in most cases, it isn't going to be read anyway <g> .... But the fact that "it is there" allows for a link to be posted, as compared to retypig the whole answer over and over and over .....

Boils down to new computer/net users, ignorance of bad things in the world, those that still trust too much, some that just can't put 2 and 2 together no matter how big the cluestick is <g> Think I'm rambling a bit ...

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Thanks Wazoo - I 'fess up, 'twas I who PM'd that thought. Mighty Heuristicist, you are undoubtedly correct in all that you say - was just running with the notion that if you write a book on how to shoot your Mother-in-law, you would probably achieve greater marketing success if you titled it *other than* "How Not to Shoot Your Mother-in law" :) (Alas, mine was a lovely lady and I mourn her - comments such as, "Then you shouldn't have shot her!" are unnecessary).

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