—if you receive one and are a real person who thought you’d applied for membership, just write to me: go to the splash page for my address up in the blue line, got it? And write to me saying “I am not a robot” and I can fish your application right out of the ‘denied folder’ and put you into the ‘approved stack’, no other action required. I get up to ten membership applications WITHOUT that daily, and most are spammers. Don’t take any grief from it: nothing at all meant personally—I just need to know you’re not selling puppies from wherever.
Well, I have done the deed: ‘membership denied’ letters have gone. BUT—
by CJ | Mar 5, 2018 | Journal | 11 comments
11 Comments
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I’m finally in! Pleased to make everyone’s aquatintance.
What do you have against puppies? Or robots? How about androids? We should have a Turing program to detect artificial life.
Spring is on the way rather early up here in New Hampshire.
I made the cut! Of course, I am second string but that’s ok. Hopefully, I will transition from lurker to participant with nary a hitch.
I so hate creating so much angst—but I have no control over what that bot says when it answers the registrations. I’m undertaking a policy of clearing the list every Monday, hoping that people will answer so that I can identify them. Our procedure is iron-clad—not one scammer or mail-order bride has gotten through, but I worry about losing people we’d like to have.
And welcome in, new members! We have three rules: no discussing politics or religion; no flaming; and this is my living room—be nice. 🙂 Outside of that, we talk about anything and everything else.
I’m assuming that anybody who joins has been lurking for awhile, (I know I lurked for over a year) so you probably know what constitutes “anything and everything else”. But in case there are those who have discovered the site very recently, a precis of popular topics: genealogy, linguistics, fish culture, cat psychology, the weather, recent breakthroughs in science and technology, comfort food recipes (esp. low carb) and a certain amount of literary criticism in fantasy and sf. Unabashed enthusiasm for the works of CJ Cherryh is probably a prerequisite but usually all caps and multiple exclamation marks are restrained.
Though CJ probably think she runs this circus, steering or moderating it is closer to the mark. In fact, a while back somebody noted that areas of Spokane had been without power for nearly 2 weeks and we hadn’t heard from our fearless leader in quite some time. The community had been cheerfully burbling on while CJ, Jane, the cats and fish had been freezing in the dark.
Lol! True, that!
@CJ, Jane, and Lynn (and Chuck?) A thought regarding blog housekeeping and keeping it from driving you bonkers:
(Ugh, please excuse run-on sentence above. My brain must be offline.)
It just struck me again after a visit that John Scalzi also uses WordPress, and he has it set up so that everyone, including already-registered visitors, go through entering their username and password and confirming they are not a bot, in order to post a reply comment.
I don’t know if otherwise his process for bot prevention is any different behind the scenes, but I’d think, if you all and he were to discuss it, you all might come up with something productive for all sides. And heck, I’d guess y’all would have a good time visiting anyway, so there’s that.
I don’t know him in person, but his blog posts are always smart, opinionated, funny, and plain-spoken. Which I like, even if I don’t always agree with every point or opinion he might have. I still get a big kick out of what he has to say, just as I do in a differently-flavored way when I visit here. I get the impression he and his wife are people I’d like in person too. (I have that distinct impression here also.)
So who knows? Y’all might have a great visit, and y’all might also pin down some ideas on blog maintenance.
Scalzi lives about 25 miles from me. A small town in Darke County, Ohio, called Bradford. At one time, Bradford’s claim to fame was pumpkin farming. I know there’s at least one major trucking company based out of Bradford, Dick Lavy Trucking, although I’ve never seen their trucks west of the Mississippi. Other than that, Bradford is a typical Midwestern town, unremarkable. Scalzi DOES make guest appearances at a local bookstore in Troy, OH, as they aren’t a chain, and they do feature his works. I used to subscribe to the blog, but after getting abused by certain people who felt they had a right to do it, and little intervention by the moderator, I decided I didn’t need to be there, and unsubscribed. I’m sure I’m not missed.
The current thread finally prompted me to join, after being a lurker for some time. Thanks for letting me register and transition to participant. I have always enjoyed reading your blog and checking Closed Circle to see what new books may have been added.
Having been almost booted because yahoo wouldn’t talk to CJ’s email, I can relate to the angst. I am glad you all got through. I don’t say much, but I avidly read everyone’s comments