Read this >>> especially if you are M. DONALDSON, Sandy Jorgenson, 10ben10, or Frankie CSX

[lupo]

Bergie,
some forums require answering an e-mail send to the e-mail adress you provided to finish your signing up, that will filter out bogus e-mail adresses,
and about the credit card stuff: how about our younger members who do not have a credit card allready, ( where I live you have to be 18 to get one ) you can't force them to leave isn't this supposed to be a forum for all ages ?

btw you could skip the forum fee for Kalmbach magazine subscribers,

[Bergie]

M. DONALDSON, Sandy Jorgenson, 10ben10, Frankie CSX. You’ll notice that your Trains.com accounts are now locked, for the following reasons:

Suspicion of using multiple accounts. This is strongly frowned upon. If you feel the need to set up multiple accounts to get your various viewpoints across, please consider this an invitation to leave our forum. There’s nothing wrong with sharing your opinions and viewpoints, but setting up multiple accounts to do so, isn’t allowed. Furthermore, setting up multiple accounts to stir up a fire or attack another member isn’t allowed.

Using a bogus e-mail address in your Trains.com registration. If I try to e-mail you (which in all these cases I did) and your e-mail bounces, your account is going to be locked. It’s not necessary to use a bogus e-mail address with us in order to avoid receiving spam. We don’t send spam... we only send e-mails to those who have opted-in to receive our e-mail newsletters and we occasionally send a special promotional e-mail to announce a new product. We don’t sell, rent, or trade our user’s e-mail addresses with anyone. If you’ve used a bogus e-mail address while registering with us, please update your profile so you’re not locked in the future.

I’m sorry if it appears I’m coming down hard on all of you, but these actions are becoming more frequent and need to be addressed. We appreciate everyone’s contributions to our forums, so long as you play by the rules. If in the near future these types of activities continue, don’t be surprised if we have to make changes to our forum policies. If users can’t behave under the current conditions where we assume a certain level of faith that everyone is registering with proper credentials and in good faith, maybe we have to move to a pay-for-use policy in the future. I know, your blood pressure just went up, but hear me out.

Having a small annual fee will assure two things. First, everyone who registers to use our forums is legitimately committed to contributing in a positive fashion (since they’ve had to outlay their own hard-earned money to sign up). This will improve the quality of the conversations by cutting out those who are only here to create friction. I know we risk losing newcomers who are just stopping in to ask some simple questions, and that’s unfortunate. But over time, maybe it would entice more newcomers to participate because the overall culture will be much improved and they’ll feel more comfortable in our new setting.

Second, a small annual fee will assure that everyone who signs up is a legitimate person. By legitimate, I mean that, since they’d have to use a credit card to sign up, that their identity would be verifiable, if necessary. We can change our registration process to include an e-mail validation process, but free e-mail accounts are too easy to establish so an e-mail address doesn’t cut it. The only way to assure proper validation is via a credit card transaction. Again, just like you trust us (Kalmbach Publishing Co.) not to send you spam as a result of giving us your e-mail address, you know you can trust us with your credit card information.

Again, sorry if this sounds drastic, but take some time to think about the positive ramifications it could have.

I hate to have such a negative tone, but hopefully it will lead to a more positive 2005. As always, if you have any poor forum behavior to report, please e-mail me at [e-mail]. Also, if you’d like to comment on this topic outside of the forums, please feel free to e-mail me. Lastly, if you are M. DONALDSON, Sandy Jorgenson, 10ben10, or Frankie CSX and would like to validate any of your e-mail addresses to regain access, e-mail me.

Happy holidays everyone.
Erik