REGISTRATION ISSUES PART III

[David S. Kozin]

I am aware of the current difficulty with validation. Unfortunately, this is a complex problem without an easy solution. 

 

The web site has received 5,390 registrations this year. 

 

This is 60 registrations a day. So, about 3 every hour. The vast majority are spam accounts. 

 

The administration e-mail account, which is not monitored, received 22 viruses ranging from Trojan.2040 to Andromeda Trojan and others. 

 

The message board service uses a Spam "Center" that determines if a user is likely spam and will automatically tag and ban or put the user in a queue for approval. 

 

I lowered the threshold to allow a few more to pass into queue, which I just approved all accounts (30) or so, so be alert for spammers that may have gotten through. However, for any person to look at each account it would be a 24/7 job.

 

I am creating a web site for a community education site for visiondisorders, which I will create a way for users to join and process these types of problems. It is not based on drug-induced vision disorders, but disorders of altered vision of all kinds. 

 

News on Journalistic Front: 

HPPD Article for Dana Foundation will be appearing soon, and I will advise you when this occurs. I read one of the drafts, and I approve of the direction. This same journalist is seeking an editor at a Scientific American or Discovery magazine for HPPD in longform. A second journalist has been pitching the story to NYT Magazine and other outlets, but because I do not want it to be sensationalized (nor does the journalist, who asks for my opinion and wants the story correct) we are hoping that the Dana article helps increase the desire for more information leading to acceptance in another magazine. 

 

I hope everyone's account was approved, and if not, the idea of publishing in the status line, "PLEASE APPROVE" I think it helpful. 

 

Best wishes,

 

David