Recent Posts A few small tweaks Some changes, also, to the new user sign-up process. New users are now being accepted (I had disabled it due to spammers). I have turned it back on in case there are those looking for what ROOLs Aldershot used to be before the caca hit the rotational aeration device. MyBB has American influence, so there is a built-in COPPA compliance option that asks for a date of birth and denies access to those under 13. I have hacked the php and changed the messages so it now acts as a UK Online Safety Act check, denying access to under 18s. The country question is now mandatory. It doesn't change anything, even if you select UK. ;) The "hide my email address from other users" is ticked by default now. Rather shocking that I had to hack the php in order to do that... GMail is now a blocked email address. I turned on registrations this morning, and I've already had two spammers both with GMail addresses. If you are a legitimate user with only GMail, contact me prior to signing up. I've tweaked the wording of that wall of text you're supposed to agree with prior to signing up. You know, that annoying crap you don't bother reading... Elsewhere, I have added a "Guidelines" page to the forum help. Help is usually on the top right, and Guidelines is down the bottom of that. It basically boils down to "don't be an arsehole", but in 2025 these things need to be spelt out for those that just don't get it. I may, one day, upgrade the MyBB software to the latest version. Given its php and I've already fiddled with some things in the base php files, I wonder how much stuff an upgrade will end up breaking? heyrick — 6:41 pm A few small tweaks It finally bugged me enough that I did something about it... There are two new time formats that you can choose in your user control panel. They are the am/pm and AM/PM ones, only without a leading zero, because "09:30 pm" is so very very wrong. While I was there, I also added a yyyy/mm/dd date format because that's my preferred way to write it. The ISO dashes doesn't look as nice to me.heyrick — 10:24 pm Minor updates to new user process Email addresses ending @hotmail.com, @msn.com, and @live.com are now added to the blocklist so they cannot be used to sign up as a new user. Additionally, signing up now says in bright red letters (*) that this is a private forum and if I don't know you then your account will be deleted. That's not to say no new users will be accepted, but you'll need an invite or some other connection to me, my blog, RISC OS, etc... These changes have been brought in due to the number of spammy new users. * - British (default) and American. I couldn't be bothered to translate it into French.heyrick — 2:02 pm Hello world (yet again) Just testing to see if the avatar displays properly. Looks good to me. And mine seems to be about right, too.cliveksemmens — 6:00 am Hello world (yet again) Just testing to see if the avatar displays properly.paintings — 10:58 pm test testing testing one two three fourirrelevant — 12:14 pm This forum is NOT dead! Hello, If you pop by and look, or take one of the RSS feeds, then it will appear as if nothing is happening around here. That's because the main part of the forum is not public. I have views about the likes of Google, Facebook, etc intruding on our online lives in order to analyse, profile, and sell the results to whoever pays (and for whatever purpose, like gleefully subverting "democracy"). Additionally, I would like Aldershot to be a place where people can discuss whatever is on their mind openly and freely. As such, the main part of the forum is only accessible once you have registered and been "activated". Once that has been done, you'll be able to participate. Otherwise, you'll only be able to read admin notices and the Playpen. Rick.heyrick — 6:42 pm Forum updates 2021/09/12 Fixed the Recent Messages being too narrow in mobile mode. Additionally, near the bottom of the main page (listing all the forums), there is an "Upcoming events" that will provide link(s) to events that are happening in the next seven days. I added a test event to check it works, and I've also added the Wakefield Show on April 23rd 2022. I would imagine there's more happening between then and now, so feel free to add items of interest to the Calendar. That's what it's there for!heyrick — 6:53 pm Forum updates 2021/09/12 I have added some more smilies to allow you to be more expressive. ;) :angel::angel:Changed to a better looking icon.:bigblush::bigblush:For when a regular :blush: (:blush:) doesn't quite cut it.:birthday::birthday::christmas::christmas::constipated::constipated:(don't overthink this!):cool::cool:Changed to a better looking icon.:dancing::dancing:(looks more like shaken, not stirred):depressed::depressed::devil::devil:In case you feel the need to troll a troll?:dizzy::dizzy::dodgy::dodgy:I couldn't find an icon-sized Trump.:drool::drool:Just not over Apple, m'kay?:dudeno::dudeno:Sometimes "Dude, no." is the only response.:eek::eek::guitar::guitar:Bonus points if you know more than three chords. ;):heart::heart:Changed to a better looking icon.:hello::hello:Oh, hello.:help::help::idea::idea:Even bigger than :lightbulb: (:lightbulb:).:livid::livid:When the anger meter has a broken face and protruding springs.:meh::meh:Just the usual state of being.:nopictures::nopictures:Pictures or it didn't happen...:ohgodno::ohgodno:Oh, God, no.:ohyes::ohyes:Oh, yes:party::party: :pling::pling:An even bigger :exclamation: (:exclamation:):puppyeyes::puppyeyes::question::question::rolleyes::rolleyes:Oh, here we go again...:sadder::sadder:When you're sadder than :sad: (:sad:).:shutup::shutup:Shut. Up.:sorry::sorry:A word unknown on teh internets.:stop::stop::thumbdown::thumbdown:Didn't like, minus a star, will not read again.:thumbup::thumbup:Liked, five stars, would read again.:tired::tired:For when :sleepy: (:sleepy:) isn't enough.:wah::wah:For when :cry: (:cry:) isn't enough.:whistle::whistle:Wasn't me, I wasn't here, I didn't do it.:whoa::whoa:Greetings, Mister Anderson.:whut::whut:When you're more confounded than a simple :huh: (:huh:).:yourock::yourock:You rock! (especially if you're Marco Hietala or Tobias Sammet)heyrick — 6:13 pm Forum updates 2021/09/12 Additionally, Guests are no longer able to view the member list, or click on a name/avatar of a post to view that user's profile. :thumbup: This originally said :thumbsup: - could that be a similar smilie but with both thumbs up, one each side of the face?CliveSemmens — 6:27 am Forum updates 2021/09/12 Additionally, Guests are no longer able to view the member list, or click on a name/avatar of a post to view that user's profile.heyrick — 9:20 pm Forum updates 2021/09/12 Small change - Guest users can now see the forums, but not access the threads within (save for "Site Stuff", namely Notifications and the Playpen). Logged in users can see everything. It isn't flawless, there's a way to see messages, but it's a mostly-unformatted mess. ;)heyrick — 9:14 pm Forum updates 2021/09/12 Hello, I have made a few changes to the forum, as follows: New registrations will now be checked against StopForumSpam automatically. This is because my last four new users were spammers, and the one this morning was smart enough to realise that the playpen was accessible, so dumped a wodge of Chinese there. I have reactivated the widget that warns if user names of they contain spaces or punctuation. Four new themes added. The themes that have been added are Blue (like you're probably looking at), Green (which looks more grey to be honest), Hello Kitty pink (!), and a sort of tan-brown calling itself Orange. You might like to investigate these (selection at the bottom of each page) because they are slightly revised for clarity compared to the Default theme, but better yet, they are responsive, which means that you will get a nicely laid out version of this forum on your phone, not squinting to try to see the full desktop version! Personally, I think "Orange" is quite pleasing to look at. Rick.heyrick — 11:23 am To new user jerryjhon GoogOLplex is still only a little number by the standards of this little article of mine...CliveSemmens — 10:03 am To new user jerryjhon The Googleplex knows everything, no matter how hard you try to hide from it...GrahameParish — 9:12 am To new user jerryjhon Other search engines do not seem to know about this place.DavidPilling — 9:45 pm To new user jerryjhon Yes, I noticed. The search tools suggest that is the origin; however this as far as I know it's internal searching? Maybe it also fires off a request for Google to index things in the background?heyrick — 6:35 pm To new user jerryjhon If the machine tries to send mail, it will be accepted if sent with authentication (like SMTP AUTH etc) but any attempts to directly send or relay should be refused as a matter of policy. I use the AuthSMTP service for outbound emails. I bought it in for a customer with their own domain who was with BT many years ago and tacked my low-traffic domains onto it as well. It was easier than having to preauthorise each domain with the ISP at the time so I stuck with it. And my customer still uses and pays for the service.GrahameParish — 10:15 am To new user jerryjhon Google knows all about this forum: site:https://heyrick.eu/ aldershot How to say this... I am a spammer. I run worthy mail lists and people happily click the "this is spam" button. Just because they can't be bothered to unsubscribe properly. When I point out they "opted in", I just look worse. Over at Yahoo, one has to join a scheme, when people click the spam button, one is obliged to remove them. Or Yahoo will block the entire membership of the list (and Yahoo includes various other famous names now). Same here David. I have to put a prominent message in emails from our Geological Society telling eejit members not to hit the Spam button to junk their Newsletters... Then they wonder why they aren't getting any more Newsletters and complain about our poor service. Grrr. And bloody BT and Yahoo just throw your messages away half the time without either sticking them in the recipient's Spam OR returning to sender as undelivered.SKS1 — 3:14 pm To new user jerryjhon Google knows all about this forum: site:https://heyrick.eu/ aldershot How to say this... I am a spammer. I run worthy mail lists and people happily click the "this is spam" button. Just because they can't be bothered to unsubscribe properly. When I point out they "opted in", I just look worse. Over at Yahoo, one has to join a scheme, when people click the spam button, one is obliged to remove them. Or Yahoo will block the entire membership of the list (and Yahoo includes various other famous names now).DavidPilling — 10:03 pm To new user jerryjhon User added to the ban list. Upon logging on they'll see a brief explanation pointing to the stopforumspam.com page given above. That said, their last login was three minutes after registration, so I guess the satisfaction of filling a forum with spam was just not possible on a system that needs manual intervention. ;) I do wonder how a spammer from Manassas (Virginia, USA) managed to find this place. I've not posted any direct links to the forum...heyrick — 9:34 pm To new user jerryjhon Oi! I have a gmail address... As do I, and probably pretty much anybody with an Android phone linked into Google... I've always thought Google in the form of gmail had a better grip on spam than many. Google doesn't seem to deliver much spam to GMail users, but it does seem to be easy to have it act as a gateway to pass on spam, and the relative ease of making new GMail accounts means it is often used as a contact address by people looking to spam elsewhere. As in the current example. yet Mr Yahoo can decide to block the lot. You might find that it's SpamHaus and not Yahoo. I run my own mail server, I have done for a few years.   so I'm using a DDNS service set up in the router to keep everything in line. I'm surprised it worked at all. I guess BT are lazy. Dial-up/dynamic IP address ranges are supposed to be listed in the PBL to flag that it's an address that cannot MX mail. If the machine tries to send mail, it will be accepted if sent with authentication (like SMTP AUTH etc) but any attempts to directly send or relay should be refused as a matter of policy. This is supposed to be set up by the ISP, not SpamHaus, as the ISP are the ones who know which IP ranges are which. My current IP (81.53.143.14) is listed this way for this exact reason. The alternative is that SpamHaus might block the entire ISP in order to force them to sort their crap out, as they famously did to Tiscali a fair few years ago (but, to be fair, Tiscali were asking for a clobber). there's no telling what I will get next time or who had it before me or how they used it. Yup. My mails, one day, were being rejected by a friend's server. He sent me the log files, I looked up the IP address and somebody had been a very naughty boy. I rebooted the Livebox, got a new IP, then it worked. It may be that PBLs arose because of the problem of dynamic IP addresses. It's necessary to block an address that is spewing spam, but it's unfair to block that address for any length of time because other people will have been assigned it, and may find that their mails are failing. There's no easy answer - not even kneecapping spammers with a sledgehammer (which, let's face it, would be an effective way to dissuade others from spamming).heyrick — 9:17 pm To new user jerryjhon I run my own mail server, I have done for a few years. Before I moved I was with Virgin and although I didn't have a fixed IP address, it only changed about three times in nearly 20 years, as whenever I upgraded my router, I always cloned the MAC from the previous one so it always looked like the same router was connecting. Since the move into a more rural area I'm outside of Virgin's service area, so I had to go with BT. They don't supply static IPs on home connections, just as an option for business (= more expensive + payment for the static IP), so I'm using a DDNS service set up in the router to keep everything in line. This is fine most of the time until one day I found my outbound emails were failing. It turns out the IP address that had been assigned this time was on a blocklist so gmail and others were rejecting my emails. Problem with the BT service is that although my router is on 24/7, it can still get reassigned a new IP address at will. When the current lease expires it rarely gets renewed with the same one, so it is entirely random - they are all from a wild variation of IP blocks, so there's no telling what I will get next time or who had it before me or how they used it.GrahameParish — 1:54 pm To new user jerryjhon Actually it's worse, it's a GMail address, beloved of spammers everywhere... Oi! I have a gmail address...as do all my family...did we ad oughter change? In my experience the emails to trust are ones that include someones's (realistic) name. I've always thought Google in the form of gmail had a better grip on spam than many. If you ask the question what email address should I have to maximise my chances of my emails not being automatically sent to spam or rejected... My emails are sent from IONOS (1 & 1), it is common to find some of their email servers black listed (by ip address) and occasionally the entire system will be. IONOS are a big hosting company on a world scale, yet Mr Yahoo can decide to block the lot. I've found people where any email from a sender that is not known to them goes to spam. It is all the result of civilisation coming to the Wild West, people don't like getting emails, so they are drawn to systems that don't overload them with email, those systems have broad definitions of spam. Then there are the people making money out of spam black lists - more names on the list, the better.DavidPilling — 11:34 am To new user jerryjhon Actually it's worse, it's a GMail address, beloved of spammers everywhere... Oi! I have a gmail address...as do all my family...did we ad oughter change?CliveSemmens — 7:23 am To new user jerryjhon Actually it's worse, it's a GMail address, beloved of spammers everywhere...heyrick — 1:17 pm To new user jerryjhon I'm not going to say what, but something in your user registration set off alarm bells in my head. You might as well block anyone from .ru I'd ask them a question "what's your fav RISC OS computer?", and you'll find them answering "rock and roll". It's bad when countries get a reputation - not fair to the often good legitimate users - presumably eventually the bad guys will work this out and stop using country domains on their emails. I like that this forum has WYSIWYG editing by default.DavidPilling — 12:35 pm To new user jerryjhon Hi, I'm not going to say what, but something in your user registration set off alarm bells in my head. And, sure enough, you're famous: Please get in touch if you feel this is a mistake, otherwise I'll delete the account request Friday evening (French time). Best wishes, Your God (at least, around here ;) )heyrick — 10:41 pm Attaching a photo Another attempt at photo attachment... Failing with: - Please correct the following errors before continuing: The file upload failed. Please choose a valid file and try again. Both files are 41K-ish each, PNG files, and I get this error regardless of which one I try. If I drag one into the post directly it shows fine until I make the post, where it shows as a text dump of the file, so I deleted that test post. Doing this from Win10Pro FF89.0.2.GrahameParish — 10:28 pm Attaching a photo I used LitPhoto on Android. With RISC OS, ChangeFSI is your friend...heyrick — 5:04 pm