Dear Forums User,
Over the last several months LD Online has been struggling with the issue of “forum spam,” the posting of unwanted, abusive, and objectionable material. Our attempts at earlier solutions were too broad and affected innocent users who accessed the Internet through the same provider as some of the abusers (AOL, EarthLink, etc.).
The only way we have found to keep abusers out and all legitimate users in is to require registration and log-in to to forums before any posting can be allowed. This means that someone viewing the forums as a “guest” can see posts, but cannot reply or create their own topics. This will be implemented on Monday, March 7, 2005.
We know this will be an inconvenience for many of you who are active on the forums. Everyone already has too many usernames and passwords on the World Wide Web. However, this step is necessary to be able to “ban” a specific individual, instead of banning the source of their Internet access.
Those of you have have already registered may continue to use your login name and password. Those who haven’t may continue to read (but not post) on the forums until you register.
We appreciate your patience and participation in the LD Online Forums!
Sincerely,
LD Online