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71A Note For New Registrants
With the increasing prevalence of bots and now AI getting into the mix, I wanted to make a note to anyone wanting to register on the forums about how the process works:
I personally approve all registrants.
That means I'm going to look at your user name, email address, and pull a geolocation on your IP address. If you look like a bot, script, AI, or paid corporate data mining drone trying to register you'll get rejected. This is not meant to block legitimate users, but to protect users from the crap that's out on the web causing problems. A few tips on how to not get caught up in the rejection process:
1. Be mindful of your user name. If it's something generic like FirstnameNastname and especially if your email address is similar that's a pretty dead giveaway you're not here to talk about Generations, Id titles, or games in general. That's typical lazy bot registration behavior.
Better idea: Use something that's a gamer handle or something related to Quake. We can always change it later if you don't like it.
2. Your email address matters. Yes, I know everyone uses gmail. That means scammers/spammers use gmail. The same with aol, yahoo, etc. Again, if it's something overly generic looking or smacks of spam bot I'm probably going to not let it through. If it's the same as your username in some way and the username already looks bad, that's a hard fail.
Better idea: I know this is a tough one because people get attached to their email address, but use something that stands out that looks like you created it. Same rule applies as with your user name. If you want to just use a free email service to create a burner account and we can change your desired email after the fact. It just takes one PM to me once you're active on the boards.
3. Where you live matters. I don't want to deny a potential gamer a voice here, and Wirehead does not discriminate when it comes to any gamer's ethnic or cultural background, but let's face it: Sometimes your country's government and/or business practices really suck and that has to be taken into account. If it looks like a residential IP that's not going to raise many flags in and of itself, but if an IP originates somewhere in a country known for having a repressive government or allowing internet scammers to run rampant that's a factor.
I cannot provide more specific examples of what makes a good registration without feeding the spam bots but let's face it - if you're here because you love Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein-3D, or the like you'll know what to do after reading this. Any potential bad actors reading this... take note. It's not worth your time, there's no money to be made here, and you need to find an honest and honorable line of work. I'm going to protect the legitimate users and you're going to lose. Every. Single. Time.
Sorry I had to post this but for the legitimate gamers out there, I feel you have a right to know that there is a real breathing flesh-and-blood being making these decisions, and that being can and will make mistakes from time to time. If you register and your attempt does not get approved *PLEASE* re-register based on the above guidelines as soon as possible and you'll have a voice here. Also, remember that registration on the message board is not necessary to download and play Generations Arena - only to discuss things on the forum.
