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Guest Postings Invited

Each time I log in I see more guests than members looking at us. I know that at least some of these guests might like to express themselves about what they have read, or post a subject of their own.

Guests can’t do this. Why? The answer is spam. Every so often I modify the controls on this message board to permit guests to post messages. We want those messages. However, as soon as I set up the permission to post, the Bulletin Board starts collecting spam at a rate that exceeds my ability to delete it. The registration process effectively blocks the spam.

Guests, we would love to have you participate in the discussions. The more discussions are initiated or replied to, the more we get to read.

Guests, why not register and participate? We will all be the better for it.

If you are trying but having a hard time, send me an email (see "contact us" at bottom) and I'll help.
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Most of the "guests" you see online are actually Google bots, not real people. They scan websites and forums for keywords and content to fill up the search engines.

There are other, more sinister bots, whose purpose is to generate spam, and to search for email addresses. If you've recently found (as I have) that a long-lost cousin met a bad end in Nigeria and left you millions of British pounds, but you have to send money to some Nigerian e-mailer to claim it, or perhaps won a bogus lottery that you never entered, chances are good that a bot has picked up your email from the web. Maybe here, maybe somewhere else. To avoid the bots, post your email as follows:

name at domain dot com, rather than name@domain.com, which is what the bots are searching for. People can suss it out, but it fools the bots into ignoring you.

On a side note, the Nigerians have quite a wicked sense of humour. My late cousin was said to be a member of the Helicopter Society and the British Colostomy Association.
Off topic or not, here's a fun way to deal with telephone solicitors. Talk a while and create the impression you are interested in what they are selling. Then hear the doorbell and excuse yourself, saying "I'll be right back."

Then sit and listen quietly. Some solicitors will hang on longer than others.

Of course, this punishes the ill-paid foot soldiers, and not the generals, so is a misdirected strategy.

Best to just hang up, or in an email, delete.

The 419eater site looks like fun.
The other possiblity with so many guests appearing on the forum, is that some of the "guests" may be members who have not logged on for that session. This is the case with me a lot of the time particularly if I have cleared out the cache for some reason. Also, members may have set their browser to automatically clear out caches/passwords that are not accessed for a certain period, or don't want their browser to remember their login from session to session particularly if they are using a computer that others have access to. I mostly only log on if I want to start or make a reply to a topic.

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