July 13th, 2011, 10:53 PM
We have segregated our user accounts into groups that CAN post ("Registered Users" and "Contributors") and groups that CANNOT post ("Orphaned Accounts").
An account is deemed orphaned when we send out an email to all SF-Fandom users and we receive a system notification from the account's email domain that the user email account no longer exists.
Your Orphaned Account can still log in to SF-Fandom but it cannot post. This setting has led to complaints and misunderstandings.
The Orphaned Account settings have been reviewed and tested. Prior to today (July 13, 2011) if you attempted to post a message you were told that your account was banned. This was due to an oversight. We have now reset the group status so that it is no longer treated as a BANNED group.
You still cannot post but you CAN use the SF Fandom Contact Administrators form to send us a message. You need to update your profile to use a current email address. You should do this before sending us a message asking to be restored to "Registered User" or "Contributor" status (Contributors have made 10 or more posts and have a few extra privileges).
WHY DO WE HAVE AN ORPHANED ACCOUNTS GROUP?
This decision was not popular with our moderation team. However, as many forum accounts were created through free email services, it is possible for hackers to pick up those old email accounts (if they are abandoned and recycled) and use them to infiltrate Web forums. Because SF-Fandom uses MySQL (through VBulletin) it may be vulnerable to user account SQL injection attacks.
More importantly, when SF-Fandom sends out advisory emails to its members, some major ISP services (such as Earthlink/Mindspring) blacklist us automatically for attempting to send email to non-existent accounts. Isolating user accounts whose email addresses are no longer up-to-date protects us from being automatically blacklisted for this reason.
We may change or drop this policy in the future but for now it will remain in place.
We regret the inconvenience some of our members experience when they find they are in the ORPHANED ACCOUNTS group. Our handling of the transition was not the best it could have been.
Your feedback on this policy is welcome. Any suggestions you care to make on how to address these issues will also be appreciated.
An account is deemed orphaned when we send out an email to all SF-Fandom users and we receive a system notification from the account's email domain that the user email account no longer exists.
Your Orphaned Account can still log in to SF-Fandom but it cannot post. This setting has led to complaints and misunderstandings.
The Orphaned Account settings have been reviewed and tested. Prior to today (July 13, 2011) if you attempted to post a message you were told that your account was banned. This was due to an oversight. We have now reset the group status so that it is no longer treated as a BANNED group.
You still cannot post but you CAN use the SF Fandom Contact Administrators form to send us a message. You need to update your profile to use a current email address. You should do this before sending us a message asking to be restored to "Registered User" or "Contributor" status (Contributors have made 10 or more posts and have a few extra privileges).
WHY DO WE HAVE AN ORPHANED ACCOUNTS GROUP?
This decision was not popular with our moderation team. However, as many forum accounts were created through free email services, it is possible for hackers to pick up those old email accounts (if they are abandoned and recycled) and use them to infiltrate Web forums. Because SF-Fandom uses MySQL (through VBulletin) it may be vulnerable to user account SQL injection attacks.
More importantly, when SF-Fandom sends out advisory emails to its members, some major ISP services (such as Earthlink/Mindspring) blacklist us automatically for attempting to send email to non-existent accounts. Isolating user accounts whose email addresses are no longer up-to-date protects us from being automatically blacklisted for this reason.
We may change or drop this policy in the future but for now it will remain in place.
We regret the inconvenience some of our members experience when they find they are in the ORPHANED ACCOUNTS group. Our handling of the transition was not the best it could have been.
Your feedback on this policy is welcome. Any suggestions you care to make on how to address these issues will also be appreciated.
