65 replies to this topic

[Michael]

Because of the fact that we have to ban so many people here for violations of the "we don't support software piracy" guidelines, we are being forced to start requiring users to enter their websites into their profiles.  We have not yet instituted this rule for existing members, but the registration form has added a required field for this, so all new registered members will need to enter their website URL to complete their registration.  If you have not set this field already, please go to the Edit Profile Information page and set it now.  As I said, it is not yet required for existing members, but it will be soon.

I understand that this is an inconvenience, but we're simply getting too many users coming here that either run their forums on pirated software or are using their sites to distribute stolen software.  We don't catch all of these right away because there is nothing to force users to tell us their website at the moment.

Please do not try and cheat the system by putting in a URL to a site that we know isn't yours, like google.com or microsoft.com.  Attempts to get around this requirement will result in a warning, further attempts will result in suspension/banning.  Putting in a site that we check and see that you are in violation of our piracy guidelines will result in your board being reported to IPS's piracy department (if applicable) and your account here will be banned.

I know that not everyone wants their website URL shown to the general public, so we will be setting this field to only be visible by yourself and staff.  If you want it to be known to everyone, feel free to add it to your signature or put it in your About Me page.

I've reiterated the fact that software piracy isn't tolerated here time and time again, but we still get people here every day that think they are entitled to anything they want for free.  I don't want to shut down this site and only give support to licensed IPS customers over at invisionpower.com because I like running this place.  And I don't want to take the step that other sites have tried of requiring verification of your active license status as that's too much work for the volume of registrations we get, and it's not necessarily as important to us as software piracy.  So please, if you're going to steal software, do it somewhere else.

[RichardC]

100% agree

Rich

*edit* would prefer it if it is only viewable by staff, as this site probably gets its info 'harvested' quite often - and as said, if you want to advertise your site, put it in your sig

[Pintac]

  I agree with RichardC 100% for a total of 200%  

[TX5]

added mine into my profile  

[Destiny67]

Only viewable by staff is fine with me.  

[Michael]

It should be set up now so that you can see your own website link, and staff can see it, but no one else should be able to see it.  Free free to check my profile to see if you can see my website link in there.

[Pete T]

I wanted update my profile but i get this "You have entered an invalid website address. A valid website address that you own or run is required for membership to this site." I taking it i don't have the field yet !!

[Michael]

What are you putting in that box?  It worked fine when I tested it, and no one else has reported problems with it thus far.

[Pete T]

i taking its Your website url if so http://www.invisioneers.net/forum

[Michael]

Try it again, I tweaked the regex a bit.

[Pete T]

Yes that's better

[Master_Odin]

If we don't have an active site up at the moment (and I mean, not even a URL has been bought for it!), can the fact that we may have posted in the customer-only section of IPS get us through the system? Curious to know since I do come to this site on occasion and would hate to discover I've been kicked out cause I don't have an active site going or even an active support license. (yay perpetual licenses not needing renewal to get newer software! )

[Michael]

Well, I could of course conclude that you, Master_Odin, are the same Master_Odin from the IPS forums, but you have to realize that I have no real way to actually confirm that.  I don't have access to your account at IPS to do anything like matching up your email to what you're using here.  I can't just say that since you have the same user name as an account over there that that means you are the same person.  And like I've mentioned above, it's not the fact that you are an active customer at IPS that I'm trying to enforce with this, it's the fact that you aren't running a site on pirated software or you're not using your site to distribute pirated software; there are plenty of active customers who would be banned here for this.

I'm open to suggestions, but my advice is to put some URL there, I mean, you could but Invisionize's address there, couldn't you?

[vivianeg]

it's a great idea  

just a question :last week my board support has been stopped by ipb.
i have only just support and update for my gallery and download till month 09/2009

because my credit card is stolen and blocked and also whit version 3.0.0 is comming i don't want this version.
maybe next year when the 3.0.0 is stabile and enough mods are update i will get back to ipb.

would this have affect for support here.?


regards

[dbershevits]

Wow, great system. I added mine.

[Michael]

vivianeg, on Mar 12 2009, 03:32 PM, said:

it's a great idea  

just a question :last week my board support has been stopped by ipb.
i have only just support and update for my gallery and download till month 09/2009

because my credit card is stolen and blocked and also whit version 3.0.0 is comming i don't want this version.
maybe next year when the 3.0.0 is stabile and enough mods are update i will get back to ipb.

would this have affect for support here.?


regards

Nope, won't have any effect on this site.  As long as you don't decide to make your site a place where people can get stolen software, or you decide to pirate a copy of IP.Board 3.0.0, then you can keep coming here with no problems.

[emoney]

Sounds good, Michael.    I made sure my site was listed for ya!

[Michael]

Well, if nothing else, I am certainly going to be keeping IPS's piracy department busy, I have reported probably a dozen or so boards to them since I started this.

[dbershevits]

Great. I hope that the pirates get what they deserve.

[Michael]

Just FYI, I plan to make the change this Monday, March 16th, so that you will be required to enter your website to move past the board index page.