UPDATE AGAIN: Let’s try this again. It’s now live once more.
UPDATE: Sorry, everyone. Within a very short time of making the forum active, my website was overrun with spam registrations. I haven’t had a problem like this in many months. It’s either the biggest coincidence of timing in the world or it’s directly related. I’m assuming it is the later. We took the forum offline to see what happens. But there is no way I am dealing with a steady and relentless stream of spam registrations every day.
I made the decision to offer another place for conversations that I think some of us would enjoy participating in, but that includes topics I don’t necessarily want on my website.
David and I set up a very basic and free forum. In the past, I had a fancy forum I paid for that was connected to my WordPress website and it was a nightmare. It connected to my WP dashboard and integrated the Users from both places. (MailPoet did the same thing with my email which was a nightmare on steroids.) I would NEVER do that again. This is a forum with software that is separate from my website’s WordPress.
You’ll have to register at the forum if you want to participate. I didn’t put it behind a password protected wall so people can see it even if they don’t register. But the requirement to register and be manually approved by me will (hopefully) eliminate the never-ending spam registrations which was something else I had to deal with on a daily basis in the previous set-up.
Once you are approved, you have full permission to post, start new topics, etc.
If I already know you because you comment here, then I’ll just approve you. If you register and I don’t know you because you only lurk, I will probably approve you but please introduce yourself in the forum so we know you are a real person.
Go here to read the Start Here, Disclaimer, and register your account: Sallie’s Forum. Then start a conversation you think we should have!
Sallie Borrink
And here comes the spam registrations on my website. Almost 30 of them in less than 90 minutes. I have to manually delete each one.
I’ll be honest. This may be a short-lived experiment.
Sallie Borrink
If you register, you should immediately get an email telling you that your account is awaiting approval. I will approve it as soon as I see it. You should then get another email telling you it’s been approved.
If you don’t see these, check your spam folder. They automatically go out via the forum system.