Open Source Ecology Forums

elifarley

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Dear Mr. Cruz,

My user name on the OSE forums is JackMcCornack

Has my membership application been rejected? I'm not sure. I got a --confirm
e-mail address-- message yesterday but haven't been able to log on. The forum
advises me to try registering again, and this time I should...

"Please try to provide enough details to persuade the administrator that you
really want to participate in the forum."

Wow. As a web administrator, I doubt I'd have the nerve to require qualified
contributors try to persuade me they really want to participate, but okay,
I'll try. If my word count was insufficient to be persuasive in my first
application, I apologize, but in my defense I assumed you too were a busy man.

I currently provide open source resources for building small (two seat, or one
seat and cargo) high efficiency, low cost automobiles. My prototype has
covered 20,000+ miles of cross country driving in the US on less than 200
gallons of fuel, and is featured regularly in Mother Earth News Magazine.
Marcin asked me to get more deeply involved in OCE a while back, re the road
car and power cube. I didn't have the time available then, and I do now.

You'll find my web site in my sig line, and you can follow my development
process at
http://www.motherearthnews.com/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=1500&tag=MAX

There you are; 200 persuasive words. If those are not sufficient, I'll not
trouble you further. If this is a test to verify I truly do have the free time
and adequate desire to involve myself in your projects, I hope two forum
membership attempts are sufficient. I won't make a third.

Regards, Jack McCornack

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elifarley

Dear Jack,

I'm sorry for the delay in processing your application.

Usually, all forum applicants are approved, except for those whose email looks suspicious (me@test.com, skseopclwq@yeah.net) and those with a suspicious membership request text. By that, I mean:

- empty text

- sentences that do not make sense, like "And she navigation boldly arrested. Furniture frequently slow night."

- messages asking me to buy "purple moncler vest", "green ski jacket", "cheap viagra", "cialis", and so on

- canned messages (those that look like they were copy/pasted from a collection)

In essence, I approve all applicants except those who look like a spam bot or like a spammer, according to my intuition.

Your text was "I've been in discussion with you re the modular passenger car, it seems like time I join the discussions."

It's a very good example of what a membership request should be: it's not too short (it doesn't have less than 5 words), it doesn't have too many words (thus it takes less time to read) and it goes straight to the point.

Clearly, your text does look like a perfectly valid request.

Your application took some time to be approved because I was on a trip with my wife, so I was not checking the forum to see if there were new applicants.

I guess my phrase "Please try to provide enough details to persuade the administrator that you really want to participate in the forum" is a bit too harsh or demanding, so I guess I'll change it to:

"Please try to provide a text that doesn't look like something written by a spammer", but I'm open to suggestions.

Please let me know if you have any further problems.

JackMcCornack

Thanks Elifarley, I appreciate that you're open to suggestions, and here are mine.

I don't think the delay caused the problem, nor did the requirement for persuasion--the problem was the lack of information. The message you sent me for e-mail address verification was prompt, but didn't tell me if I'd been approved or rejected, and the evidence (a day later I couldn't log in and when I tried to reapply as per your "...provide enough details to persuade the administrator..." instructions at <http://forum.opensourceecology.org/discussion/336/if-your-forum-application-isn039t-approved...>, I found my screen name and e-mail address had been blocked from applying for membership, as well as blocked from logging on) indicated that membership would be an uphill battle.

So it's not that your reapplication instructions were too harsh, it was that the reapp instructions were difficult to find and lacked essential information (such as that one couldn't use the screen name from their original app in their reapp), and it's not that the approval delay was excessive (I don't expect you to be chained to your workstation), it's that my forum blockage (and reapplication blockage) lacked explanation, thus my personal message to you (which you've pasted above as a forum post).

If the application (or address verification request) had included something like "We will review your application within 48 hours [or a week, or whatever you're comfortable with] and notify you of our decision" and "We will verify your e-mail address before reviewing your application and you cannot reapply before our review is complete" I would have waited patiently.

Your approval is appreciated, and I hope my participation will add to the discussions on the OSE forums.

Howdy, Stranger!

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