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Latest Forum Activity

Hollow 'Download' Registrations

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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2018-12-17 9:37 PM
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I grow depressed looking at the number of dud registrations that we get.

The number keeps going up, but people don't participate.

I've traced a few over the weekend and they're just shooting straight into the download centre, registering in a new tab, hitting F5 in the DLC and mooching bandwidth.

It's a scale problem. The DLC registration threshold kicks in for all files over a certain size. Under it and no registration is required. If I take it off, the server transfer rate just goes up and up and up and we don't benefit either and obviously I pay more (there are no adverts here!).

Does the community have any opinions or bright ideas that they'd like to weigh in while I cogitate?
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2018-12-17 11:32 PM
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Limit total downloads to a certain number per month…

Decrease file size restriction…

Award points to increase download limits based on forum participation

Limit file access downloads to paid members only, even if the amount paid is a token amount just to keep the leeches away…like a buck.

Remove all download menus from visibility completely until a member has registered and made either a number of posts or contributed in some other fashion, money, or…

Don't allow downloads for 30 days with new members.

Put the downloads out on some free website, like Google and let them swallow the bandwidth problem…
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HPC:Fan Page Icon Posted 2018-12-18 12:07 AM
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I'd say put a post limit before you're able to download. Like 5 posts or something. That should weed out a lot of people just signing up for downloads.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2018-12-18 12:21 AM
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There may need to be some more specific conditions than that, HPC:Fan, cuz anyone can just register, post "bump" or a single emoticon five times and they're in.
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HPC:Fan Page Icon Posted 2018-12-18 12:58 AM
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I doubt that would be the case here. Maybe on a forum for Android downloads, but the audience of WinCE users are a tad different. (Or I'd like to think so lol.)

Could limit their posting by a timer between each post. Like say five minutes per post. That should weed out even more people.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2018-12-18 9:34 AM
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It's a tricky one isn't it.

Min post requirements would create a SPAM problem, alas.

Limiting downloads within the month isn't possible for non-registered users because it would have to be tied to IP address and limiting it for registered users would encourage multi-account registrations.

Doing anything that involves integration between a shopping cart and the system requires the site to start paying fees to PayPal/Merchants or very slow, time consuming manual processing of "orders" by me - which I don't have the time or will power for. Believe it or not, I frequently get people filing complaints against the site with PayPal who have made a donation (Often of £0.01) and didn't get a reply from me within 15 minutes -- because I was asleep.
PayPal a) always uphold it and b) always charge me the refund + the transaction fees each way.

Pointing out the fact that no one in their right mind is going to sell something for £0.01 with a 100% transaction fee applied and that these are obviously fraudsters doesn't matter. PayPal get to bill me for the fraud conducted against me. They do not care.

Unless anyone knows of a PayPal API that I don't? In which case we could just issue anonymous, no-registration required guest tokens for £1.00 and up or something.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2018-12-18 5:33 PM
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I've just had a look at the scope of the problem. We have 17,356 accounts with 0 post count and same registration/last logon day.

That's 57.2% of the accounts.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2018-12-18 7:45 PM
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OK. I just sent 17,357 emails.

#PartOfTheProblem


C:Amie
Closure of your hpcfactor.com Account -Take Action

Dear {USERNAME},

You currently have an account with HPC:Factor (https://www.hpcfactor.com/). We have noticed that you have not used this account recently.

This message is to notify you that we currently intend to delete your account in the New Year.

Should you wish to keep your account, simply log-on to HPC:Factor before 1st January 2019 by visiting https://www.hpcfactor.com/.

If you do not know your password or wish to close your account immediately. Please see the HPC:Factor Help Section at https://www.hpcfactor.com/qlink/?linkID=136 for more information on both.


If you do not wish to keep your account. Please ignore this message and your account will be deleted in the New Year.


*** Please do not reply to this email. It is unmonitored ***

HPC:Factor Team
www.hpcfactor.com
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2018-12-19 2:37 PM
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Some of the emails got through because the total is now down to 17,330.

I hate to think how many the poor mail server is having to bounce.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2019-01-12 5:07 PM
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Right, 17,266 user accounts have just been deleted. New account registration is also suspended until I figure out what to do about leaching.
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tallis Page Icon Posted 2019-01-14 10:33 AM
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Factorite (Junior)

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Quote
C:Amie - 2019-01-12 5:07 PM

Right, 17,266 user accounts have just been deleted. New account registration is also suspended until I figure out what to do about leaching.


Hi there C:Amie

I hope that these few words find you well. Have software downloads also been suspended from HPCFactor? I just tried to download sofware from H/PC Developer, but receive the message " The page cannot be displayed because an internal server error has occurred."

....look forward to hearing from you.

All the best

Simon
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2019-01-14 10:43 AM
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Simon,

What is the URL of the page that you are on/what are you attempting to download? It seems to be working as far as I can see.

Also, please create new threads for new issues.
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tallis Page Icon Posted 2019-01-14 11:00 AM
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Factorite (Junior)

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Hey C: Amie that was quick -- much appreciated!

I am trying to download (I use a Jornada 720) Microsoft Windows Platform SDK for Handheld PC 2000.

I went to
https://www.hpcfactor.com/downloads/details.asp?r={DC24B86A-1E6A-4DE...

Then clicked on "download"



... but I get "The page cannot be displayed because an internal server error has occurred."

....will create a new thread as requested.



Strange....
@B Simon
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2019-01-17 7:46 PM
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Right! I think I have a plan for what we're going to do.

The system will implement an algorithm that will:
Check to see if they are a subscriber, if so, just pass it
Check to see whether a user has been registered for (30???) days (I'm open to suggestions on that)
Check that their post count is > (5????)
It will then take a average between all of their forum post dates, giving us a spread of their posting activity in the form of an average post date
If the difference between the average post date and their last post is greater than the registration day requirement (e.g. 30 days), access will be granted. If it isn't no access.
Posts made into the Off-Topic thread should be counted in the stats (opinions???). So people can post in there all day and receive no perks.
Posts deleted by mods or SPAMMED won't count either

If you're remotely interested in what that looks like:
Here I am
27, 14478, 2004-09-18 09:12:00, 2019-01-17 17:14:00, 5234, 2008-04-25 00:00:00.000, 3919

Ms. CmoneX
140, 16175, 2004-12-05 00:03:00, 2018-08-23 21:46:00, 5009, 2006-11-06 00:00:00.000, 4308

Mr. Hawley
148, 6850, 2004-12-12 15:28:00, 2019-01-14 22:26:00, 5146, 2010-11-26 00:00:00.000, 2971

Mr. Geek
871, 11945, 2005-07-23 05:42:00, 2019-01-16 17:39:00, 4925, 2009-02-04 00:00:00.000, 3633

That's
memberId, totalPosts, firstPost, lastPost, daysBetweenFirst&LastPost, averagePostDate, qualifyingDays

As it uses an average, it's obviously possible to fall back out of scope again, so some work may be needed there.

How's that for cruel and unusual? I think that earns me my 'Benevolent Dictator' badge

Thoughts, opinions, flaws?

p.s. Rich, looks like you peaked late; and you thought you were going downhill in retirement?
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2019-01-17 11:47 PM
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I can't believe I've been posting here for 14 years… has it been that long? OMG I'm old…

I was actually a pretty active poster on some other website…can't remember the name, but it had a pretty active hpc or Mobilepro area.
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