Required profile fields.

For a while now, I have been manually approving all new registrations, and enforcing the requirement for the new member to provide a FULL NAME and CITY, STATE, COUNTRY within their profile. Any that do not provide that info will have their registration rejected and the registration record deleted.

As of today, I am making those requirements retroactive. When someone logs into the site, these fields will be checked, and if that member is not in compliance, they will not be able to access the forums. They will receive a notice instructing them to go to their profile page (a link is provided within that notice) and to fill in the profile fields needed.

Any member who has obviously bogus information within those fields are subject to having their access to this site blocked until they comply.

Sorry to get so strict about this, but this is necessary in order to try to weed out those people intending to obscure that information in order to engage in scams taking advantage of people on this site. It's not perfect, of course, and everyone is strongly encouraged to make every effort necessary to satisfy THEMSELVES that they are engaging in a transaction they wish to proceed with. Again, if you are asked to send the animals or payment to someone who provides a name or location that differs from what is shown in their profile here, you need to be aware of the risk you may be taking. The efforts I am making here will be completely useless to YOU unless you take your own steps to use the tools that are being provided for you.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know what is going on. I STILL expect to get emails from people who won't be able to figure out what is going on, but at least I'm trying to limit that somewhat.

Rich, I have City, State - do I need to go in and add USA to my location? Will do if needed. Thanks!

Originally Posted by rabernet

Rich, I have City, State - do I need to go in and add USA to my location? Will do if needed. Thanks!

The only time I have an issue is if one of the three is left out, and there would be some confusion about identifying exactly WHERE that location is. I think it's safe to assume that most people registering here will be from the USA.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Sorry to get so strict about this, but this is necessary in order to try to weed out those people intending to obscure that information in order to engage in scams taking advantage of people on this site. It's not perfect, of course, and everyone is strongly encouraged to make every effort necessary to satisfy THEMSELVES that they are engaging in a transaction they wish to proceed with. Again, if you are asked to send the animals or payment to someone who provides a name or location that differs from what is shown in their profile here, you need to be aware of the risk you may be taking. The efforts I am making here will be completely useless to YOU unless you take your own steps to use the tools that are being provided for you.

So people who neither buy/sell/trade to/from other users of this site through the classifieds are going to be required to provide this info? From the classifieds point of view I can see why it would be necessary, but I can't see why this is necessary for people who just post and share information with each other on the forums in general - where one lives does not have any bearing on that use of the forums.

Originally Posted by Wraith

So people who neither buy/sell/trade to/from other users of this site through the classifieds are going to be required to provide this info? From the classifieds point of view I can see why it would be necessary, but I can't see why this is necessary for people who just post and share information with each other on the forums in general - where one lives does not have any bearing on that use of the forums.

I can understand your point of view...but how is Rich supposed to know exactly how each individual intends to use the site? Both the BOI and the Classifieds are huge elements of the site as a whole, and I can completely understand the need to make those fields mandatory.

When it was just the BOI that required certain information (ie: full name) it was simpler to monitor, although still a bit of a pain for the staff to catch and enforce, I imagine. When you add in all of the classifieds...and make those name and location fields MANDATORY (even on the BOI, it was never mandatory in your profile, so long as you included it in the post somewhere)...there is no way to separate that requirement from the rest of the site. It's an "all or nothing" sort of solution.

Originally Posted by JudyC

I can understand your point of view...but how is Rich supposed to know exactly how each individual intends to use the site? Both the BOI and the Classifieds are huge elements of the site as a whole, and I can completely understand the need to make those fields mandatory.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

So when someone wants to buy from you (whether it is real or just trying to get the location from you) what information do you give them for them to send you a money order?

I have no intention of buying anything from anyone on this site nor selling to anyone on this site. When I want to buy reptiles I perfer to buy in person at shows. Because I have no intention of ever using the "classified" section of this website I would NOT be giving anyone my location to start with because I would not be providing nor receiving any form of payment. I certainly should NOT have to open myself up to stalkers or put myself at risk simply because I have no intention of making full use of this site.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Sorry, but it is up to prospective customers to do their own homework about who they want to do business with. The tools are available, they just need to make the effort.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

So if someone has a better idea on how to do this (without causing ME more work than I am already doing), then please let me know.

Simple.
Make it a requirement for anyone posting ads on the classifieds to provide their location in their post (if they chose not to provide it in their profile). People posting to the classifieds who fail to provide a location get their post deleted when someone reports it to a mod. You already have that kind of system in place for the BOI with the "full name required to post or it gets deleted" so that people are forced to "own their own words". Let the customers do their own homework about who to do business with as you already want them to do - the discussion forums are not the place to do business. The users of the discussion forums need NOT follow the BOI rule nor would users of the discussion forums need to follow the classified ad rule if it was done that way.

There is another forum I like to visit that uses that type of system already..the classifieds require a location while discussion forums do not. Specifically they state "If it's not part of your user profile already, you must explicitly state your location in the classified." While I don't sell stuff there, I do on rare occasions buy from users there if it's something impossible for me to get locally. I will not bother to entertain the idea of contacting anyone about their ad if they do not have their location listed and will report them instead. I also am very careful to do my homework and only provide my address information after they have already given me their address with which to mail them payment via USPS priority mail. Actually they don't ever know my address until the day they get my payment as I have a letter included with the money order and where to ship my purchase.

Originally Posted by Wraith

So people who neither buy/sell/trade to/from other users of this site through the classifieds are going to be required to provide this info? From the classifieds point of view I can see why it would be necessary, but I can't see why this is necessary for people who just post and share information with each other on the forums in general - where one lives does not have any bearing on that use of the forums.

You may want to make note of the name of this site. It may give you a clue about it's focus....

Originally Posted by WebSlave

For a while now, I have been manually approving all new registrations, and enforcing the requirement for the new member to provide a FULL NAME and CITY, STATE, COUNTRY within their profile. Any that do not provide that info will have their registration rejected and the registration record deleted.

As of today, I am making those requirements retroactive. When someone logs into the site, these fields will be checked, and if that member is not in compliance, they will not be able to access the forums. They will receive a notice instructing them to go to their profile page (a link is provided within that notice) and to fill in the profile fields needed.

Any member who has obviously bogus information within those fields are subject to having their access to this site blocked until they comply.

Sorry to get so strict about this, but this is necessary in order to try to weed out those people intending to obscure that information in order to engage in scams taking advantage of people on this site. It's not perfect, of course, and everyone is strongly encouraged to make every effort necessary to satisfy THEMSELVES that they are engaging in a transaction they wish to proceed with. Again, if you are asked to send the animals or payment to someone who provides a name or location that differs from what is shown in their profile here, you need to be aware of the risk you may be taking. The efforts I am making here will be completely useless to YOU unless you take your own steps to use the tools that are being provided for you.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know what is going on. I STILL expect to get emails from people who won't be able to figure out what is going on, but at least I'm trying to limit that somewhat.

Great idea Rich, hopefully it will cut down on people getting scammed on this site.

I agree Rich... It's a wonderful Idea! Keep up the good work making this site better and better Why should people who are honest want to hide where they are from?

Originally Posted by chamgirl99471

Why should people who are honest want to hide where they are from?

Because we may be from a small town and dont want everyone to know our business... or what we have. I cant do anything without someone telling dad. Yes... it is that small of a town around here.