AM I THE ONLY ONE TERRIBLY ANNOYED BY THIS?

I don't get out much....what is "SPAM" protection ??

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

I can't stomach either kind of SPAM, but I find the canned variety much easier to avoid completely than the electronic form.

The only 'solution' I have found to the email kind is to use completely separate addresses for what you might call 'business' and 'personal' use.

I think this is especially important if one uses any online payment service such as PayPal for ordering goods over the Internet.

Even so, SPAM can still catch up from time to time, as just recently happened to my 'business' account.

When that happens, about all one can do is 'punt' and start over with a new email account, so that's exactly what I did. For this purpose, I always select a new 'user name' while I'm at it.

When establishing new or separate email accounts, I also think its best to use different services. This ensures that your 'different' messages come from separate domains.

Of course, having more than one or two online accounts of any kind means having to keep track of more user names and passwords than some us − including me − can handle.

The free and reliable answer I found to that problem is a program called KeePass. If you are running a PC, I highly recommend it. In addition to encrypting and storing your logon info on your own computer, KeePass will type it in for you. It will even open the applicable webpage in the browser you select (if you run more than one browser, which I do, also for security purposes).

There are also 'cloud' services for password storage, but to my mind, they all seem rooted in circular reasoning.
I realize all my passwords are kept at the sites where I have one, but the last place I want to store them is on the internet, courtesy of a third party.

Hope this helps.

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THE SPAM PROTECTION ON THIS SITE WHICH REQUIRES TYPING IN 5 CHARACTERS TO SEND A MESSAGE

NO BUT I HAVE TO TYPE IN MY "SIXGUNNER" NAME

(SPG edit, as usual)

Hardly surprising: Happens all the time with me.

I'd still recommend KeePass for password management, but you'll have to go back my post above if you want the link...

Other than that, you're welcome.

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Of the Troops & For the Troops

The easiest way around it is to register your username and then set it to automatically log in each time you visit the page. If you don't want to use your usual email address for fear of it getting hijacked, drop me an email and let me know and I'll set up a forwarder so that you can use THAT address to register your username here. Anyway, the only folks who see the spam control text entry are the ones that haven't signed up for an account. Although it is annoying, it keeps the site from getting offers for generic viagra, imitation Rolex watches and russian women looking for a long term relationship based on less than solid foundations.

As mentioned, I'd be glad to provide you with a "throw away" address if you'd rather use that to register on the forum. Just let me know.

I don't have a Day Job anymore, but if I did, it wouldn't matter; I was talking about 'in real life'.

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Paul said, "I'd be glad to provide you with a "throw away" [email] address..."

If it really takes such a convoluted approach for an admin to create an account for a new user of this forum, then I would suggest doing exactly that for JT, then taking it the next logical step further.

After creating the 'dummy' email address & password, take that info and do the exact same thing on the forum
(i.e., setup a new account here), then send that logon info to 'SIXGUNNER".

That way, he can forget all about the dummy email account; in fact, he wouldn't even have to know about it (you could also delete it when you're done with it)

Disclaimer: Just an eye-dear.

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