How To Register as a Forum Member

[Charlie]

There has been a huge attack of spammers attempting to become members of the HVH Forum for the past week. We are no longer able to register new members the same way as before. Please remember, anyone can read the messages, signing up as a member is only needed to post messages. This change does not affect current members, only new sign ups.

To register on the HVH forum, please click this link http://www.hiddenvalleyhibiscus.com/pages/otherproblem.htm
and then fill out the email form. Tell us you want to join the forum and provide your name and your email address. We will process your registration for the forum as quickly as possible - within 2 days.

Thanks

Charles and Cindy Black, forum moderators

[Charlie]

Update - this problem continues unabated. The statistics page shows that the forum gained almost 1200 new members so far in June. We normally average about 40 new legitimate members per month. Fortunately, the final step in becoming a member is approval by a moderator. I'm having to reject all new member applications now in order to keep these spammer jerks out. I apologize to real people who are trying to sign up and hope you will write to us so we can add you manually.

The spammers must be using pretty powerful machines and software because they can defeat the security measure of having to figure out odd shaped script that used to be able to prevent machines from joining forums, etc. We're looking for another solution but in the meantime the forum is fairly well protected by rejecting all new members.

As always, anyone can read the posts. In fact, I see the forum has already set a new monthly record for June with over 125,000 pages opened. Can't blame people for enjoying the fabulous photos and good info that our members have continued to post!

Charlie