I'm amazed at the number of spam-mails i've been getting since in York from the culprits Matt is concerned about , so yes please whatever it takes to keep them off BM i'd say 'go for it' . They seem to be more at work here than in SA .                                                                                                                                                                             

I'm going for a hybrid approach... taking the best options from each method.   Give me till the end of the week and I'll have it running.   If you find that you suddenly get blocked from the site, and you have a full account... you can report it and I'll investigate.   If more people have a problem than expected, I will turn off the blocking until I know what's causing it.                                                                                                                                                                             

Step 1 complete... The registration form has been disabled for anyone outside of the UK and Ireland.  There are links helping you remove your proxy server (if set) and also to a "IP Exception Request" form, so people can email the moderators their info and ask to still be allowed to register.   Moderators will receive an email shortly about how to handle such requests.                                                                                                                                                                             

i hate spam !                                                                                                                                                                             

i hate AOL, AOL users and the crap AOL network!  Anyone using AOL should be aware that AOL is a pile of crap, that doesn't follow any internet standards and makes my life miserable as a website developer.   I just killed the site for a moment trying to fix a problem with the new system - all cos of AOL!                                                                                                                                                                             

Interesting point Matt, SV_Shell and I are next to each other on the same wireless network.  She's on IE8, I'm on IE7, you broke the site for me (Error 500 - Internal server error) but didn't break it for her (IE8)!   Thought you may like to know.                                                                                                                                                                              

actually, its because it was time for your records on BM to be updated.  Every 5 minutes your details are saved (IP address, last visit time and (as of now) country code your visiting from).   The problem came about because the country code lookup system cocked up with AOL IPs and shows US rather than UK.  In the process of fixing it, i didn't realise I'd stopped the update script from running.   :-)                                                                                                                                                                             

***don't ya just love it when that happens!!!***                                                                                                                                                                             

Ahhh good old AOHell 

                                                                                                                                                                             

i noticed earlier on we slipped back in time for maybe 3 seconds , was that it ??                                                                                                                                                                             

  A O L America On Line, says it all                                                                                                                                                                              

you wouldn't believe that 1 in 14 of our registered users are with AOL!!!                                                                                                                                                                             

A O L ... Almost On Line ... would never use them again lol                                                                                                                                                                              

  LOL Nice one Shell                                                                                                                                                                              

I've ended up back with them Not by choice, but by default I am with Carfone W H and Talktalk, which was the best deal going at the time (3 years ago) But without warning they joined forces with AOL and viola! I'm stuck with them AGAIN They cost me a fortune over 3 years when doin my degree, it took me months (18) after finding out they had been charging me, to get my money back   and I was on "dial-up" back then (87-90) so I was not a happy bunny when they kept "stealing money" from my bank account even though I was using another,more reliable ISP (Madasafish ) I'm gonna put all my eggs in the "mobile" broadband basket When they have improved the coverage and speeds                                                                                                                                                                              

simple rule is not to save pennies on what appears to be a better deal.  A couple of quid extra gives you massively better service and performance.   Ok i need help from you folks in the UK (as I'm in Holland)... please can I ask you to logout from the site, then hit the "Register" button.  I need to know if you get the registration form OR an IP Blocked message.  I particularly need to know what happens for you AOLers.   Thanks                                                                                                                                                                             

I'm reluctant to log out at the mo in case I lose my event submission!

Just hit "Add Event" and got this come up:

Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error �e57' String or binary data would be truncated. /sites/bm/events/add_event.asp, line 56
Any ideas?
I also couldn't get it to register PM on the date/time bit, but figured folk would understand I didn't really mean 2am Thurs, til 2am Sun
                                                                                                                                                                             

Minus the question mark in the diamond... not sure where that's appeared from                                                                                                                                                                               

Hi Matt   I just did it & got the registration form come up ... Ian however does not have an AOL connection, its plus.net & IP starts 80.229 (yeah his geekness is sat next to me as I type )                                                                                                                                                                              

ok Phase 2 implemented.... all users are blocked from accessing the site from outside the UK unless they upgrade.  Only the homepage, contact and upgrade pages are available if you're outside the UK (and logged in).  You can still access all the site without logging in, but your account is locked unless you upgrade.   WB... you've put some dodgy text in, sounds like it's too long what you've put.  Maybe shorten the website, phone and address fields?  Or the name of the event?  Something is too long and will be "truncated".   Thanks Shell & Ian for the response.