Massive Delays in Forum Account Activation

[Marian]

There have been multiple players that have complained about it taking weeks or even months to get into the forums.

I'm not really sure why manual account activation is still being used in 2015, but whatever the reason, the way it's being done (or rather, not being done) is yet another major, inexplicable hurdle for new players getting into the game during the period when they're just starting to learn and most in need of a way to ask questions.

[*Wiro]

This might be 2015, but this forum software is ages old. Without manual activation lots of spammers get through and a choice had to be made between removing all the spam or manually activating accounts (which as far as I know is done by Greek). I think at least people who use the same email they signed up with in-game get activated immediately.

In the end it all comes down on Greek's shoulders. Ideally the forum would get an upgrade.

[Marian]

This might be 2015, but this forum software is ages old. Without manual activation lots of spammers get through and a choice had to be made between removing all the spam or manually activating accounts (which as far as I know is done by Greek). I think at least people who use the same email they signed up with in-game get activated immediately.

In the end it all comes down on Greek's shoulders. Ideally the forum would get an upgrade.

The 'type whatever to prove you're not a robot' thing that most forums use isn't available here? Or would be difficult to add? I'd always assumed that was pretty much a standard feature for forums now.

[sherman]

That doesn't help against people who do accounts just to spam.. Like on summer (or was it spring) we had some russians spamming forum with propaganda about Ukraine

[Kyriel]

Manual activation does nothing to stop real people who intend to cause trouble. That's what forum moderation is for.

[Rmak]

I used a separate email from my game email to protect myself didn't know if this forum would then spam my account like other forums do.

I also had trouble actually signing up for the game (My fixed IP was rejected and my emails to support unanswered).

[Alutka]

I think at least people who use the same email they signed up with in-game get activated immediately.

Wrong. I and my sister had exacly the same situation: we both used the same email as we used in the game, and our forum accounts were never activated. Surprisingly, when we used other emails our accounts were activated in a matter of a few days. (It's worth mentioning that my sister registered on the forum almost two years ago, so it's not a new issue).

[Marian]

I also had trouble actually signing up for the game (My fixed IP was rejected and my emails to support unanswered).

I read somewhere here that when you contact support from the links on the main site it often doesn't go through, and the better solution is to PM one of them on the forum.

Which...well, I understand is difficult to do if you can't get your forum account activated either.

[Greek]

I'm activating forum accounts and I think waiting time is quite acceptable, considering it's manual process.
Accounts weren't activated for a few days because I didn't have access to PC then. Unfortunately, sometimes it happens.
Recaptcha doesn't prevent human spammers from registering (we get one or a few of them every day), so it's not enough to be safe.
I wanted to make the registration automatic by creating a phpbb extension (for phpbb 3.1) to check email address, but after finishing it I've noticed it won't work on our forum version. So for now it's impossible, unless there's somebody experienced with phpbb MODs (working for 3.0) is willing to help.
Or we'll upgrade, which is not that easy and would need to be discussed first.

[Marian]

A few days is not a big deal, what got me to post this were some new players complaining about waiting for weeks. Wasn't sure if it was some issue with their email or a case of whoever was in charge of that just not logging in often or what.

[Rmak]

Weeks