Registering is too difficult

[Bigbernie]

Hello everyone.
I'm French = Difficulties with British langage.

I got stuck on the "Project" during registration.

Luckily, ChatGPT told me the project name was Scumm. You can't guess it.
Choosing 4 letters from the name of the capital of the USA would be much easier for the whole world.


And then there was the validation by an administrator.

I'm almost 90 years old, I started using computers in 1983, I've participated in and registered on at least 150 discussion forums and 10.000 URL, posted over 50.000 messages, and I've never had to be validated by a team.
It's always automatically validated after a few seconds.

A discussion forum isn't Fort Knox. When I register, it's like walking into Starbucks for a coffee.

Why so many registration barriers ?

I used Scumm for the first time with an old Windows game, and it's much easier than with Radeon Adrenalin. Perfect and fast. I just noticed there weren't any games from the famous Microprose series.
I learned why later.

To be continued.

Thanks

[sev]

We have to do it because of spammers and bots. Congratulations on getting through. This is your first Adventure achievement.


Eugene

[digitall]

@bigbernie; We do support at least two Microprose games:
https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?titl ... Conspiracy
https://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php?titl ... der_Bender

There are a few other being worked on, but alot of Microprose games are outside the project scope i.e. Point and Click adventures, RPG, Interactive Fiction

[Bigbernie]

Thanks.

[Red_Breast]

I'm almost 90 years old, I started using computers in 1983

Almost a nonagenarian. Congratulations.
I'm 59. Almost a sexagenarian. Started using computers in 1980.

[Bigbernie]

Hello.
With the Commodore C64.

I remember operating systems from audio cassettes. The copy speed was what provided the protection. You needed a VCR with a variable speed potentiometer in order to copy.

I also remember the first virus: mouse inversion. You fixed it by setting the first bit to zero with a hex editor.
Then Atari St and Amiga 1200 and PCs Windows. Assembleur Motorola machine language, Linux Red Hat
Now i'm playing a lot of old games and Scumm is very interesting. Easier than DosBox

Have a good day.

[Peter Piers]

BTW, clarification, the project is called ScummVM. Scumm was the original scripting language that LucasArts (then LucasFilm) used for making their adventure games; ScummVM, I believe, stand for "Scumm Virtual Machine", which is to say, a "virtual machine" that runs Scumm games. Of course, that's when ScummVM was focused, initially, on just having the LucasArts games. Since then, it has expanded so much that it's an amazing adventure game (and increasingly more) VM. And yes, so much better and easier than others around, including DosBox.

Theoretically, it would not be difficult get that the name of the project is ScummVM, since it is also the name of the program and the name of the forums and is very visible in pretty much every page; perhaps the difficulty, especially with a user of a different language, is in the word "project", so that new users may not be sure what exactly it is they're being asked about. Possibly, a new user may not associate ScummVM with a "project"; more like a "program". I actually remember that I also paused to reflect on it for a bit, before thinking "I guess they mean ScummVM? Lemme try the selected letters of that word", and it worked.

If ChatGPT told you the project was Scumm, well, my message to ChatGPT is, SHOWS WHAT YOU KNOW, AI-OVERLORD-IN-TRAINING!-BOOYA-TO-YOU!
(if I'm wrong on this my face is gonna have so much egg)

Also, while individual validation can indeed be a pain, the pain of having spammers and bots posting multiple times is a bigger pain. This is a small inconvenience, which, of course, is indeed inconvenient; but after that initial hurdle, the result is a forum that sees no annoying spam. Pretty neat.

At any rate, you got through - welcome!

[Bigbernie]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Indeed, it's the word "project" that can be problematic for non-English speakers.

And I had never considered the different graphics engines.

Regarding forums, I'm familiar with their security measures, and none have as many as this forum.
The worst thing that can happen is having your bank account emptied. That can't happen on a forum, but it can be the starting point for identity theft. Mozilla Firefox is strict on these matters. But the French forum Mozilla Geckozone, and hundreds of others, are not at all. It's very easy to get in.

Best of luck.

[GateKeeper]

Regarding forums, I'm familiar with their security measures, and none have as many as this forum.

Actually, there are lots of forums that have much tighter control than ScummVM has ever had.

These include, but are not limited to:
- Registration by invitation only. If no one invites you, you are never going to get in.
- Some forum areas accessible only after reaching 25/50/100 posts on other areas. This is quite common, especially on forums that share some files.
- Deletion of user account after some period on inactivity. You need to keep posting, or you're out.
- All posts moderated. You can't post anything unless the post is approved by a moderator.
- Login confirmation by phone/SMS. Usually on commercial forums only, but quite common there.
- Mandatory requirement to use your own name, no nicks or aliases. Not that common, but I am a member of two such forums, so they do exist.
- Downvoting hell by the members. Maybe a special case, and not really a security measure as such, but join Reddit... and you will find out how some subreddits are!
- There are also minor annoyances such as timed logouts and all that.

So all things considered, I would say ScummVM forum is one of the more relaxed forums out there.

[Bigbernie]

I'm learning a lot. I've never encountered all the things you described on French websites.

For example, the screenshot above shows Clubic, which is the largest French forum, and what the administrator tells me.

Hey! I'll be able to see if this forum allows clickable links!

https://ibb.co/dwKKHC7h


What you're telling me about forums, I didn't know that existed.

Perhaps France is special, and I suppose it's because, in 25 years on the internet, I've only registered on two non-French forums: English Amiga Board (EAB) and...Scumm.

I'm not even mentioning the tens of thousands of international sites that don't require registration.

And regarding the requirement for some to be invited, it reminds me of level 5 dark web. Marianas
We really learn something new every day. Very interesting.

Thank you.

[scoriae]

I think you replied to the wrong post Bigbernie. This is not the post you made about it being hard to register.

[criezy]

I think you replied to the wrong post Bigbernie. This is not the post you made about it being hard to register.

I am pretty sure that was indeed the case, so I moved both your posts to that topic.

[Bigbernie]

Sorry

[Red_Breast]

BTW, clarification, the project is called ScummVM. Scumm was the original scripting language that LucasArts (then LucasFilm) used for making their adventure games; ScummVM, I believe, stand for "Scumm Virtual Machine", which is to say, a "virtual machine" that runs Scumm games.

Whilst reading this it's reminding me of something.
Oh, yes, of course.

I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux”, and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

If you are familiar with that text and have a sense of humour you will see the funny side of it.
If you are familiar with that text and don't have a sense of humour you're probably a little angry with me. I get it. I'm a little pedantic myself.

If you are not familiar with that text then ignore this whole post.

Not sure of the exact source of that text.
Nor is Stallman it seems.

https://www.gnu.org/gnu/incorrect-quotation.en.html

[Peter Piers]

...it doesn't make it untrue, though. Scumm is Scumm, ScummVM is ScummVM, and scum is scum, and these are not the same. Sense of humour notwithstanding.

And I don't see a widespread use of Scumm to mean ScummVM.