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TroyHepfner
January 9th, 2008, 03:50 PM
As you can see, I've moved my blog into our new forum to make it more interactive. Forum members can ask me questions about what I wrote or discuss blog entries with other members. Forum membership is free, you just have to register.

I've had a few questions about our registration process that maybe some of our other visitors have, so I'll try to answer them here:

Q: Why do I have to register?
A: Registration helps us minimize spam and objectionable content on our forum, especially by automated bots. We want to keep our forum free of anything that may be unsuitable for children.

Q: Why do I have to enter my age?
A: We require your age in order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) here in the United States. Currently, we do not allow anyone under the age of 13 to be a member. Instead, we recommend that the parent or legal guardian of such children register as a member, and then the parent and child can participate in the forum together. That way, the parent or guardian is fully aware of what is happening in our forums. Your age is hidden from other community members by default, though you can elect to make it visible if you want.

Q: Why do you require my password?
A: This is not your Internet or e-mail password. You are essentially creating an account on our web site, and the account requires a password to protect it. The password can be anything you want.

If you have additional questions, let me know (info@mygamecompany.com). I'll be happy to answer them.

Sherry
January 10th, 2008, 04:52 PM
I read the information about the new blog site. I'm not that computer savvy, I guess, because I don't know what an 'automated bot' is. Can you explain what the term means? Thanks!

TroyHepfner
January 10th, 2008, 05:17 PM
Oh, sorry. Here's a good Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot) entry that explains it well. Basically, it's a program that someone writes that scans web servers and quickly performs some automated tasks. For example, there are some bots that are designed to scan sites for forums like this one, and then look for submission forms that they can automatically fill in and submit. These bots are the ones I'm most concerned about, because they typically bombard unprotected forums with spam, viagra ads, and other unwanted material.

Good question! Thanks for asking!