Suggestions for forum

All new accounts have been approved! Post and be merry!

No idea is stupid as long as you're trying to be helpful. I might disagree with it, but it's not stupid.

To be honest though, I sort of groaned when I noticed the birthday feature on here. I'd rather keep this an AMW-related board, but if you want you can feel free to send a private message, say happy birthday to a poster as a topic in this off-topic folder, or you can even mention it briefly to a poster if they post in a thread and I'm sure they'll say thanks and get back to to the topic. For example, "I want Yaser Said caught too. P.S. Happy birthday Scumhunter!" and then I'll say thanks and get back to talking about Yaser Said.

This forum has received a free upgrade from the server! If there's any bugs feel free to alert me so I can notify the server!

The old forum posters are almost back, now we just need Tony to register (I told him about this but I think he forgot about it again).

Getting way too many requests by people with the last names of fugitives profiled on AMW or the non-AMW forum without answering the registration question and with weird screen names and e-mails. As we've seen on here with Dan Hiers, I am completely willing to let someone tell their side of their story as long as they're respectful, and whether a fugitive is guilty or not, I completely sympathize with the toll that the fact they are a fugitive must take on their family.

I really hope this isn't a trend because I don't want "friend or family member defends fugitive" to be a theme of this site. This trend is getting annoying quite frankly. (the registering mysteriously with same last name trend, nothing wrong with posting and defending respectfully but to not even state that is annoying).

I wonder, is the registration message not obvious enough? Do I need to type in caps? I love that I put new members must answer this question and only one or two people have since I instituted this.

It still is weird for a friend/family member of a fugitive to actually speak. Even on AMW.COM it didn't happen THAT often. With Scott (and I apologize for talking about him in third person if he's reading this since he's still a member), I do admit I've read his posts elsewhere before he joined, but I understood what he was frustrated with that isn't talked about in the case. Despite having Dan Hiers on my personal dirty dozen for what he allegedly did, I also recognize he's entitled to a fair trial like everyone else if he's still alive and captured.

But most of the time a family member only wants to post to troll. If I have no record of posts on other message boards, the same last name, and a weird screen name, and the person doesn't even answer a simple question it doesn't look good for them.

Ugh! I've had to not approve four people and two today since instituting that must answer a general AMW question rule. Granted, they seemed like normal posters, but still the rule's the rule. My theory is trolls are more likely to not answer the registration message, (even though no matter what the question is it's easy to lie) since usually they're focused on replying to one topic and don't carefully skim through details of the site. Whenever I get a troll, it's always someone who registered in that mysterious manner.

I hate rejecting people who might be legitimate posters but the rule is the rule. And if they can't follow a simple instruction and have such poor reading skills, I doubt the quality of their posts anyway.

Can someone please do the process of registering but don't actually register, and tell me if this is registration message is understandably unnoticeable?