What year did Bernard Hinault win his first ...

retina · 2011-01-24, 06:07

Actually I wanted to turn off AM/PM and change to 24hr clock but instead I came across this:

What is 2^32-1?
What year did Bernard Hinault win his first Vuelta a España?

http://mersenneforum.org/profile.php?do=editoptions

Appeal to Snake1 (or Fish1, or something1), can there please be an option to change the time display format? TIA.

Xyzzy · 2011-01-24, 16:13

In an attempt to reduce spammer registrations, short of turning off all new registrations, we have been forced to switch from our text verification system to a system that asks questions.

Unfortunately, these questions are also used, we think, when editing a user profile. There are possibly other areas but we have not found them yet.

Currently, the forum is facing an onslaught of spammer registrations. A spam message rarely makes it past our internal spam review board, but the spam review board has been getting increasingly hostile over the last few weeks. They do a fantastic job (How often do you all see spam messages?) but we have observed that this job causes tremendous strain in family relationships, increased substance abuse and bizarre high-risk behavior.

We had planned to add up to five registration questions but now we are not sure what to do. There is a fine line between questions that are too easy and questions that are too hard. Plus, there is a very real possibility that once our questions are cracked, the spammers will just mow us over.

We suspect that we are dealing with actual humans and not bots. We have read articles about people who earn a living registering, manually, on forums and stuff all day long. Since an actual human is doing the registrations, the image verification system is useless.

There are some anti-spam plug-in modules for the forum software we use, but any module that is not part of the base system is very difficult to manage, especially during forum security updates and basic forum upgrades.

Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon. We are working very hard to fix it.

FWIW, spam registrations have dropped since the questions were introduced. The dearth of knowledge about Le Blaireau disturbs us.

retina · 2011-01-24, 16:19

Actually the questions don't concern me that much, it was just a curiosity I thought was somewhat amusing. Although it might be worth mentioning that I was changing my profile, not registering as a new user.

My main question/request here is to have a 24-hour time option, and turn off the AM/PM thing. Does v-bulletin have that option?

Xyzzy · 2011-01-24, 16:33

We can change the way the forum displays time, but it affects every user.

However, we have been wrong in the past, so if you can find a solution we will implement it.

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html?m...rsion=30806601
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...-vBulletin-3.8

retina · 2011-01-24, 16:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

We can change the way the forum displays time, but it affects every user.

Ouch. Even a lot of free board software gives user level control for this option.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

However, we have been wrong in the past, so if you can find a solution we will implement it.

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html?m...rsion=30806601
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...-vBulletin-3.8

I can't see anything there for version 3.8.6 to suggest individual control.

If it ever comes to a vote, I vote for 24 hour format ("H:i").

Xyzzy · 2011-01-24, 17:04

Quote:

If it ever comes to a vote…

There is a poll function in the lounge.

retina · 2011-01-24, 17:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

There is a poll function in the lounge.

Okay, noted, I'll run off to the lounge and ~~spam~~ query interested users preferences with a poll. But it might have to wait five minutes now after posting this. :(

2011-01-24, 06:07	#1
retina Undefined "The unspeakable one" Jun 2006 My evil lair 14064₈ Posts	What year did Bernard Hinault win his first ... Actually I wanted to turn off AM/PM and change to 24hr clock but instead I came across this: What is 2^32-1? What year did Bernard Hinault win his first Vuelta a España? http://mersenneforum.org/profile.php?do=editoptions Appeal to Snake1 (or Fish1, or something1), can there please be an option to change the time display format? TIA.

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2011-01-24, 16:13	#2
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 2020₁₆ Posts	In an attempt to reduce spammer registrations, short of turning off all new registrations, we have been forced to switch from our text verification system to a system that asks questions. Unfortunately, these questions are also used, we think, when editing a user profile. There are possibly other areas but we have not found them yet. Currently, the forum is facing an onslaught of spammer registrations. A spam message rarely makes it past our internal spam review board, but the spam review board has been getting increasingly hostile over the last few weeks. They do a fantastic job (How often do you all see spam messages?) but we have observed that this job causes tremendous strain in family relationships, increased substance abuse and bizarre high-risk behavior. We had planned to add up to five registration questions but now we are not sure what to do. There is a fine line between questions that are too easy and questions that are too hard. Plus, there is a very real possibility that once our questions are cracked, the spammers will just mow us over. We suspect that we are dealing with actual humans and not bots. We have read articles about people who earn a living registering, manually, on forums and stuff all day long. Since an actual human is doing the registrations, the image verification system is useless. There are some anti-spam plug-in modules for the forum software we use, but any module that is not part of the base system is very difficult to manage, especially during forum security updates and basic forum upgrades. Hopefully this issue will be resolved soon. We are working very hard to fix it. FWIW, spam registrations have dropped since the questions were introduced. The dearth of knowledge about Le Blaireau disturbs us.

2011-01-24, 16:19	#3
retina Undefined "The unspeakable one" Jun 2006 My evil lair 2²×1,549 Posts	Actually the questions don't concern me that much, it was just a curiosity I thought was somewhat amusing. Although it might be worth mentioning that I was changing my profile, not registering as a new user. My main question/request here is to have a 24-hour time option, and turn off the AM/PM thing. Does v-bulletin have that option?

2011-01-24, 16:33	#4
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 2⁵·257 Posts	We can change the way the forum displays time, but it affects every user. However, we have been wrong in the past, so if you can find a solution we will implement it. http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html?m...rsion=30806601 http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/forum...-vBulletin-3.8