Recent Posts 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