Practical Backpacking

I'm in the same boat as you are, I use gmail exclusively so I cannot join!

A lot more sites are starting to do this, because of the amount of questionable email that comes from gmail, yahoo, and other free services.

What you may be able to do is to find one of the smaller free email services that is not as conspicious as the larger and go from there.

Or, maybe backpacking light is willing to start selling email services to members?

MikeB

I know the forum owner personally. He is strict about keeping his site free of "riff raffs" (my term) and non-backpacking related chatter. The ISP rule is there by design.

Now, it's not my rule to defend or attack — but my thoughts are that if you believe his rule is asinine (your term), then you shouldn't join. After all, there are dozens and dozens of other forums out there.

Almost all of the tech forums I participate on have the same rule. Its for the reasons that Mike mentioned, its easy for spammers to set up a Hotmail or Yahoo account and go to town. I'm sure your ISP provides you with a free email address or five, so just set one of those up to field the emails and you should be set. The only email I've gotten from Practical Backpacking is the confirmation that my account was active so its not like you're getting tons of emails from it anyway.

Adam

His name is Bernie something. He sits at his computer all day long changing peoples posts, because he is strict about how pretty your post is. His screenname is reality so you could send him a pm.

I understand this "feature" was implemented by design. And I would love to send him a PM but I cannot sign up. Why would I want to go get another email because of one forum? I want to sign up because I think he has put together some great netcasts and seems like a good forum is being started. I also want to read and respond to a thread about the Go-Lite interview.

I am a member of at least 15 different forums and none of them have a problem with my Yahoo email. And none of them seem to suffer from spammers.

Plain and simple this seems like a very unreasonable rule, but from what I can tell already Bernie probably doesn't really care.

"Matt" after reading your post I thought of this comic:

So, yes, you could just directly paste a URL in your reply when an embedded link is considered better form, just beware the raptors if you do.

Adam

Ben, when the heck did he start that? I don't even have an ISP email address. I use ALL web based email accounts. Never had an email address based on my ISP…we change to often ;-P

My guess is that anyone could sign on at first — but soon after, folks were signing on with multiple handles — causing Bernie to tighten up the process and requiring ISP addresses.

Once you sign up you can freely change your email address that PBF will use to send you emails (which is very few). I don't know what your work email rules are, but you might be able to sign up with it and immediately change it to your yahoo account.

I understand that PBF has ruffled a few feathers with the way it is set up, but it really does create content rich site without a lot of superfluous posts to sift through to find info you need. I have personally talked with the admin, and you wouldn't believe that amount of spam that he has to deal with that the average poster doesn't see. PBF is a great forum, and I will continue to make it the primary forum that I use.

I know I was an early member to sign up, but I had no problem with my yahoo e-mail. Try it. The worst that can happen is it won't let you.

Hi Brian,
I'm a moderator at Practical Backpacking and will email Bernie about this issue. As far as I know, you should be able to still register with your Yahoo account but will double check and get back to you.

IIRC, I signed up with my Hotmail account. But that was a little over a year ago, so things have probably changed.
As for whether or not its worth its to get another email address to sign up, that's entirely up to you. I personally enjoy PBF but I'll admit its not for everyone. I remember lots of discussions on Whiteblaze about how PBF would never make it and how it is run as a dictatorship. If that's how you feel there are plenty of other forums that are probably more to your liking. No one is forcing you to participate on PBF, here, or any other forum. If you go in with an open mind, knowing that PBF is a little different than you are used to, you will probably enjoy PBF, just as many others do.

Adam

hmm, i went over and reactivated my account today, then in the "Gear Workshop" forum i posted a link to pictures of my homemade quilts. now my post has disappeared. i assume it was removed, but i received no explanation of why, or even any notice that it was removed.

PBF continues to underwhelm me. reckon i'm just not the kind of user they want there.

I like the content over at PB but I can't stand all of the nanny like features. No thanks for me.

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Thanks for all the comments folks. Yes I realize there are other forums out there and no one is forcing me to use PBF. However the netcasts seem really good so I figured I should give it a try. I'm going to see what I can do to make it work and try for myself.

I must admit I am not going in with an open mind. I really don't like multiple comments about a moderator editing my posts. And I'm already irritated about the draconian email rules due to spam issues. Face it spam happens.

"i posted a link to pictures of my homemade quilts. now my post has disappeared. i assume it was removed,"

Reality is pretty quick to pull a link if you post it as a URL. Just insure you use the icon and basically make it look pretty. If you link to anything he deems "off-topic", it goes away quickly. It's too bad because some of the best threads I've read on other forums came from a minor thread drift. Granted, that was the exception, oh well.

I still regularly visit PBF because I enjoy mix of styles and ideas that take place there. (And yes, I've had posts pulled before. Looking back I realized I had drifted off-topic, and reposted in way that kept the thread on-topic and the post stayed.)

so basically i have to be html competent in order to participate there? sigh. no thank you. i sew pretty, i don't post pretty. i'm not interested in being hovered over and corrected invisibly.

Colleen:

Shawn mentioned about sticking to topic and embedding links. But there is another rule that I suspect might be the reason why your post got deleted: A post must be able to stand on its own. It's OK to embed a link to photos elsewhere, but the post must include content. It is not OK to write a post with barely a few words and an embedded link.

and yet my post was deleted with no notice or explanation. what a way to welcome users to the forums.

i could be a useful contributor to a forum like the Gear Workshop. but frankly, i'm pretty turned off now. i like the concept of PB, but i feel little inclined to stick around and slowly learn the un-obvious rules of participation there.

you're right, i could certainly have elaborated more than i opted to in my original post. but a post from the owner requesting that would have prompted me to do so. silent deletion of my post merely makes me feel unwelcome.

Colleen:

That I agree!

You don't need to know html. That's what we use here. PBF uses the same set up as Whiteblaze. All you need to do to embed a link is highlight the word you want to place the link in, click the button to add a hyperlink, paste the URL and click OK. Much easier than embedding links or posting pictures here for the average user. It may be a little extra hassle when you post, but for the people reading your post it is much easier to click a link than it is to highlight the URL you pasted, copy it, open a new tab or window, paste it in the address bar, and hit enter.
However, like you said, embedding the link is extra work and if you don't want to do it then don't. If you choose not to post on PBF its no big deal. I can come here, or go to TLB, or anywhere else you post, and see pictures of your quilts and get your advice and opinions and trip reports as well.

Adam

PS- I swear I don't mean this as a personal attack or to offend you in anyway tarbubble, but I noticed that you don't like to use capitalization when you post. Is that old Shift key just a little too much work as well? :P Sorry, I was joking poking a little fun. Please don't take it the wrong way.