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View Full Version : A Few Questions About Registering (Bugs?)


bungholio
02-14-2009, 03:00 AM
There are 2 different users from the codetwinks forums I've tried to get to register here. Neither of them have managed to register here. I have no idea if Enicia attempted to register like he/she said they did, I don't see the name in the memberlist or any threads that have anything to do with uploading an ELF file for Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian, so I'm assuming he/she is so lost on a computer that he/she has no idea of what I'm talking about.


But the one other user in the past (can't remember the name) kept PMing me having troubles with registering, and I don't know if that user ever did manage to register. That user said that they kept getting an error in the registration screen about the little math test. It's that one that says "If you have 15 apples and eat 6, how many do you have left?" I had trouble believing that user's math skills were that low, so I tried to log out and check that part of the registration screen. I realized it's not possible for me to log out no matter how many times I click log out, so I couldn't check the problem and couldn't help any further. I didn't think of just clearing the private data and stuff from the browser at the time. But about a week ago when I was asking why couldn't I delete my own posts, I was checking for things that might prevent me from deleting posts. Somehow in my user options stuff that exact little math test kept appearing and refused to let me change my options. I know the answer is 9. I put a bunch of different 9's, "9, nine, NINE, 9 apples, 9 APPLES, 8, 10, 15 - 6 = 9, NINE YOU STUPID FUCKING THING 15 - 6 = 9 GODDAMNIT!!". I randomly went back to it the same day, nothing seemed to be the right 9. A day later, I checked my options again and that dumb question was gone, and I'm happy I haven't seen it since and hope I never see it again.

It makes me wonder if that little math question is bugged.


Also do VB forums have a little easy problem that prevent you from registering? There have been 2 different VB forums I've tried registering on in the past that I couldn't register on because they send you an email to activate the account, but I didn't receive the email. From there, I tried to register again. Can't register twice because the username and email are already taken. Can't click "I forgot my password" and get an email because the account isn't registered. Can't do anything to resend that email to activate my account. Once you click register and you don't get that email, you're very screwed. Also, the administrator DarkByte is either really busy or has a clogged full inbox or something, I haven't managed to get the account activated at the cheat engine forums in the past 2 days to submit my Aliens Vs Predator cheat engine cheat table. This also happened a long time ago on the Bioflames forums around the same time just before I registered here. But I managed to contact the administrator Dot50CAL on the The-Horror forums for resident evil stuff and he said he activated it. I kept trying to randomly log in throughout the week, and couldn't so I said screw it. I can't remember if it said that the account was still not activated, or what. But is it possible that that could prevent somebody from registering here too?

Pyriel
02-14-2009, 04:33 AM
If somebody is having trouble registering, they need to contact an administrator to work around the problem. The vBulletin forum software is generally pretty good. I won't say it's bug free, but show-stopping bugs, such as a bug that blocks registrations, are exceedingly rare.

These problems are usually on the user's end. Sometimes they're using some horrible plug-in or a software firewall so incredibly intrusive that the form data isn't submitted properly or is corrupted somehow. Then there's just general gooniness, which happens more often than anyone cares to discuss.

The profile question is there to prevent ad-bots from joining, and it's not going away any time soon. The "abc" in the field is a hint to the correct answer. We couldn't let it just be "9" for obvious reasons. I registered a test account a few days ago (coincidence) to check out some forum-view permissions, and had no trouble going through the registration process.

As to the other forum, you should be able to send a PM to a moderator, super-moderator, or administrator, even with an unverified e-mail address. Request that they resend it, or verify your account. I usually do that with people who PM me about registration e-mail problems here. It's easier to move them to the active group than to resend and wonder if they misspelled their e-mail, or it's hitting a spam filter, or if the damn sendmail program is on the fritz again. I think you're already aware of this. Regardless, whatever is keeping you out of those forums is not a bug in vBulletin. It's either something you did to your account when you registered, or the administrators there don't know what they're doing.

bungholio
02-14-2009, 05:54 AM
The "abc" in the field is a hint to the correct answer. We couldn't let it just be "9" for obvious reasons. I registered a test account a few days ago (coincidence) to check out some forum-view permissions, and had no trouble going through the registration process.

I went through that in a hurry and had that dumb question drilled into my mind. "If you have 15 apples and eat 6, how many do you have left?". I don't remember seeing anything about ABC in it. Why did it appear under my options to prevent me from changing my own options, and then just disappear a day later and hasn't returned since? And what was the answer if it wasn't 9?

Skiller
02-14-2009, 06:51 AM
THink about it .. How many ways can u type that number .. we never said it was not 9 we said it was not Just "9" so think about what he said and what i just said and ask why would there be somethig that says ABC ?

bfoos
02-14-2009, 07:01 AM
I spelled out the variables in the equation and put "abc" in the answer field as default. If people can't figure out the answer and its expected format, well then, perhaps we don't really need them to be members of CMP.

Pyriel
02-14-2009, 01:48 PM
The field is a required, hidden, profile field. Everyone has to answer it at registration time since several months ago, and anyone who registered before that will have to answer it whenever they change their profile details or password. The field probably went away because you answered it correctly. Excitedly clicking "submit" and "back" and refreshing is a good way to miss important stuff.

Actually, I just checked your profile, and the correct answer is in that field. Somewhere in your wild, frustrated flailing, you gave the correct answer and it was committed to the database. Hence the question went away. Subsequent attempts were just you grinding against a cached copy of the form or something.