How plain do I need to make it?

[electra225]

We have a notice posted in the bulletin board at the top of the index page about new members being required to post their locations to have access to the forum. Yet, almost every time, we have to remind new members to post their location. Frankly, I'm getting tired of doing that. Every forum to which I belong requires members to post their location in their user profile. Do they all have trouble with this? I post at the top of the index page IN BIG RED LETTERS, yet still we have to remind new members to post their location. You may notice my responses to this becoming more terse and more direct. I would rather discourage someone from participating in the forum than to have a spambot get their tennacles in our forum. The moderators and I fight these people every day. There are "tells" we use to identify them. They use made-up email address with multiple letters that are configured as to be hard to type accurately. They use a certain numbers of letters in their usernames. They are pests, vermin whose only purpose is to inflate our membership roster and create havoc for the rest of us. I ban usernames, email address and IP address so these pests won't post on the forum. So far, so good at keeping real trouble off the forum. It is a never-ending job. I hope those of you who support the forum will understand our motivation and won't be concerned if we "cut them off at the knees" occasionally. Thank you for your understanding and support.

[stbasil]

So I guess there's no way to make the location field to be "required" in the forum software?

Thanks for all your work on managing the forum!

[electra225]

Rrading and agreeing to the rules is required before you can register. A part of the registration process Thank you for your participation and support!...