We fight spammers aggressively at the SDMB. One of the tools we use to keep them out is to ban their IP numbers when we find them.
It is possible that when we do this you may be accidentally blocked from the board.
We want all the community members to be able to access the board, we want our lurkers, too. What we don’t want is spammers, who have been especially pesty lately.
If you find you cannot sign in to the board please contact TubaDiva @ aol. com
In your email please list the IP address you are currently using, that will go a long way towards solving the problem. If you do not know your IP number go to this site, it will tell you: http://www.whatismyip.com/
We hope that this process will go smoothly to keep spammers out and you connected. Please bear with us as we sort this out. Thanks.
Wrong. I was suspended a while back. I couldn’t read the boards. I couldn’t even read Cecil’s columns. Everything I tried just gave me a message saying my IP was blocked.
If you don’t believe me, ask the admins to block your own IP for one day. See if you can read the boards.
I recently found that I unable to start a new thread. Have you closed down the board to members only? I can sign in and I can reply to messages but there is no button to initiate a new thread.
I don’t see anything out of the ordinary with your settings, Nunzio. And we have not changed anything.
Wonder if this is a local hardware or software issue – perhaps a browser problem. How are you accessing the board? What type of machine? What operating system, and what version number? What browser are you using and what version of that is going on?
Usually this sort of thing becomes an issue when the target device/system is so cutting edge and advanced that the current board programming can’t handle it … or so old that it can’t function with the message board software, the ads, or some other function on the page.
How are you getting to us? While most people today are cable or DSL or wireless of some kind, we do still have a few diehards on dial up.
Any of these things may be an issue.
I’m not saying absolutely that’s what’s going on with you – but since it is just you and just one thing, it does make me wonder.
So please tell me what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and let’s look at that. You don’t have to discuss your business publicly; send an email to webmaster@straightdope.com if you prefer.
And certainly if anyone else has seen this problem, tell us about it.
i just registered . i can confirm that if your IP address is banned, you cannot see anything on the boards. i had to email the webmaster as well as ask a friend here for help.
I sent off an email to the websmaster recently on this. I have been travelling a lot recently and logging on from different places. I also purchased a new router and intenet connection at home for use with my old one; and that seems to have had its IP address banned. Help
I recently discovered my IP was banned, and had to email the admin to get access. And yes, I couldn’t even read the boards, although I could read the main page.
So here is my “test” post.
test post from Ms Boods – I have the message board bookmarked on my home computer, but I have to log in each new session; going to the site got me a message that my IP has been banned, but when I attempted to log in anyway, well, here I am.
I was banned for about two hours this morning. I sent a letter to the webmaster and it got sorted out. No idea what the issue was, but they said my IP was banned.
Just a helpful hint: having this thread where you ask us to provide all this information is completely useless when I’m banned and can’t access this thread at all. Any information you want us to provide should probably be put in the notice that comes across our screen when you’ve blocked our access.
