Anyone having issues with Us Militaria Forums?

[Badger]

I was curious, so I had a quick look at their forums ....

The appear to be running heavily modded version of vBulletin which is the same software we use, although they've removed from the bottom of the forum display, the copyright line ie: Copyright © 2012 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved, which is a violation of vBulletin's license agreement. As a consequence and unless they've been granted a "branding free" license in perpetuity, they could lose that license if vBulletin finds out and decides to enforce their copyright. However, that's not my problem, but I found it interesting as I've never seen any vBulletin site do that before.

I also don't understand the lag in registration requirements, as it's a vBulletin automated process and can be done in less than 5 minutes. If the excuse is that they need to protect themselves against spammers, it's simply not necessary to cause such a poor service restriction to accomplish that mission.

We've used vBulletin for over 6 years and yes, you get spammers attempting to break in and post ads for porno and cell phones. Our site gets over 500 hits per day trying that.

In our case, we use add-on programs that protect the site and 99% of spammers don't get past the front door. There is the odd one that I'm sure you've seen post a "cell phone" ad here, only because he went to extensive lengths to follow the rules in registering and managed to get his "single" post up in a forum. Usually that post only lasts a matter of minutes, as one of the moderators sees it, or a member clicks on the "report post" button and it's deleted, with the spammer being banned and his IP address blocked and reported automatically to StopForumSpam's Database. That database gets checked by us every time someone registers and if they are a reported spammer, they get rejected, so, they move onto easier pickings.

I suspect that there's more going on with their site than meets the eye. I don't know what or why, but it could be as simple as the site owner or administrator doesn't know how to use HTML code and add the protections that we do, or in fact, most large vBulletin sites do. However, since someone manged to heavily modify the vBulletin code they are using, it would seem to me that someone at some point had the expertise to do that, so you'd think they could easily address the blocking of spammers issue.

I don't know the owners, but if they wanted someone to fix and improve their site, simplifying the registration process, while protecting themselves against spammers, I'd be pleased to help them out if requested to do so.

As collectors, we need as many quality collecting sites as possible, to help keep the hobby alive and growing with newer generations.

Regards,
Doug

[Peconga]

Thank you all for the assistance and information about registration on the US Militaria Forums, especially browningautorifle for contacting a Forum mod on my behalf. While I can understand the desire to qualify new Forum registrants, any process that requires MONTHS to complete is completely absurd.

Even more frustrating is my experience, where all email to the Forum Admin is being returned as "Undeliverable - Mailbox Full" and there is no other way provided to contact an Admin or a Mod unless you are signed into the Forum as a full member. Catch-22

BTW, I received the original registration acknowledgement email within a few moments, so the vBulletin system has already done its part; the rest of the process is evidently in the hands of a human being (or in my case, already in the email bit bucket).

[Badger]

I received the original registration acknowledgement email within a few moments, so the vBulletin system has already done its part; the rest of the process is evidently in the hands of a human being (or in my case, already in the email bit bucket).

Actually, that's only because the admin of the site set an option to want to manually approve every registration.

The only purpose of the email validation element of registering, which we also use, is to ensure the person registering is using a valid email address, forcing them to click a link in the email to complete the registration process. We do the same, but on our site it's an automatic validation handled by the software, far more efficiently than any human could do it.

There must be some other reason that their site administrator wants to review every applicant.

Regards,
Doug

[claw1]

I registered there 2 weeks ago and when I login not only can’t I post or even view/edit my profile but I have less than public permissions (cannot even read any posts when logged in). I email the admin there 2x in a week and it bounced back each time that the mailbox was full.

I agree there is no valid reason for such waiting. I admin 2 other forums (car and race forums) and am aware of what is needed in the background so the idea that registration should take any longer than the time for the admin to check emails or validate is preposterous. Especially since the admin mailbox bounces back messages. A forum that size should definately not have 1 lone person (or email) to handle registrations and day-to-day of the forum needs. Or, at least some way of contacting them (even the whois has the domain contacts hidden...geesh)

[browningautorifle]

I did contact them. They say it's going to take time to process you. Well, read the above post I transplanted from them...that's what they say. Nothing more can be done.

[Gottlieb]

I had the same experience. Genealogy is my interest, and I came across a post there from a guy who had purchased a WWII Purple Heart and LOM that were posthumously awarded to my grandfather's cousin. The OP wanted to know who the person was and what he had done. I tried to register to tell him the whole story of the person behind the medal. It's an interesting story: he was a German-born Jew who came to America fleeing the Holocaust and worked in intelligence for the Army, using his native knowledge of German. First, US Militaria wouldn't send the confirmation email to my primary email address because it's on Hotmail. I think they also avoided Gmail. I had to use an email address that I haven't used in years to try to register. I finally got the email verification, but then I needed approval. I waited weeks for approval but never got it, and stopped checking that email account. Today I tried to register again, and wound up in the same registration black hole.

I think the moderator wants to keep that forum as his own private club for his friends, and that's fine, but don't pretend that you're going to let people register. Don't waste my time.

[browningautorifle]

I think the moderator wants to keep that forum as his own private club for his friends, and that's fine, but don't pretend that you're going to let people register. Don't waste my time.

I don't know...I don't have any problems there nor do I know the senior people. Maybe it's not them...

[claw1]

I'm not worried about it because it isn't like "that forum" is any big deal. If they cannot run it so new people can join then that's their problem / loss. Information is available elsewhere much easier.

It doesn't take that sort of "time" to go through the approval process. LOL, I actually admin two other forums myself (a car forum and a racing forum, all with hundreds of members) so I know what I am talking about.

When it comes down to it, I don't want to join a forum that tells tall tales or cannot even do the forum basics anyway.

[RT Ellis]

I was an early registrant at US Militaria Forum and contributed in those areas in which I have some knowledge. My membership was suspended for two years for personal issues with ADMIN (who remains nameless and the only point of contact for people other than members) for what I can only describe as "political incorrectness." The comment previously expressed that ADMIN wants to keep the forum as a sort of exclusive club may well be functional, I would also express the opinion that dealers are thought of as really swell people at US Militaria Forum. I believe my opinion of dealers is part of the conflict that caused my suspension.

The suspension period has long passed and I emailed ADMIN several times reminding him that my membership suspension has expired and offered explanation for some of my issues with the forum, that I fully intend to keep to myself from now on and only post technical information. I am still "Banned" from the Forum and ADMIN has not acknowledged my emails. Based on the previous comments on this thread I am now not so disappointed in ADMIN's lack of courtesy. My main purpose for appealing that my suspension has expired is that I would like to communicate with some of the other members on the USMF.

As with any forum there are allot of people that use it for either obtaining information or sharing information of interest to the membership. There are also people that it appears just want to participate and their primary motivation is "post count." There is allot of speculation and misinformation posted that in my view detracts from the usefulness of the forum to the membership. The US Militaria Forum has open tolerance for postings asking for the monetary value of material culture items which in my opinion is related to the favoritism shown dealers.

In the last thread in which I participated prior to suspension other members purposefully tried to "flame" me for the purpose of having grounds for tattle-telling to ADMIN a violation of forum rules. My suspension was actually a violation of forum rules as it was done without warning and no violation of forum rules was offered as justification. It was obvious that ADMIN bowed to the pressure of his preferred membership to suspend me. I have heard from other US Militaria Forum members that were threatened with being banned. One of them I cannot imagine what he could have possibly done to be threatened with banning as all the posts I had read were non-controversial and intended to be informative (although occasionally unintentionally misinformative).

It is not my intent to discourage anyone that desires membership at USMF. It is my opinion that ADMIN has some serous personal issues, and that if you pursue membership be very careful that you are not critical of anything or anyone, and be very careful of the content of your postings. There has not been a banning/suspension in quite some time at USMF so maybe ADMIN got it out of his system and feels he has the remaining members under control.

BTW it appears that there was no admonishment, certainly none of those that flamed me were banned, for rules posted or conveniently imagined as in my case.

[Badger]

Just for clarity so everyone remembers what they agreed to when they signed on with this bunch here ..

Forum Rules & Site User Agreement - Military Surplus Collectors Forums

Regards,
Doug