quick question, - while I fully support banning the kittys, is there any way to prevent them coming back? because if not- then the whole banning thing starts to look like a game for the kittys (which i dont mind - if it keeps them the hell out of chat), and a monumental waste of time for the mods. perhaps not allowing hotmail/yahoo type mail addresses on signup - making it a bit easier to track the banned users.

I would have to agree with banning the use of free email services as a point of contact. There are very few places that allow the use of free email in registration. I am always weary of who gets my email address, but when joining sites this large it should be mandatory, and people do have the option of not receiving email.

I neither use nor trade in pirated software, but I do use Yahoo email exclusively (I only have one account) as a matter of convenience (easy access to my email from anywhere). I understand and agree with what you are trying to do, but it would affect the innocent along with the guilty. Rich

point taken.! it's just I hang out in chat a lot and the pirates are, i think, making a sport of it. take the latest loser - something-2K - he came straight into chat and in his first 2 statements stated he had a pirate copy of lightwave! and (i have no proof, and i could be wrong) i'm convinced he was shindler1 - who was banned last week. fortunately for all it's not for me to decide :-) if it was i'd track these (expletives deleted) down and break all their windows, be that 95, 98 2k, Me etc

You wouldn't have to break 95 or 98...they break on their own!! lol Rich

once again - point taken lol anyone want a free copy of win 2k (dont even go there!!!)

I think not allowing free email services would be good if it did not cause too much grief for the members. It would certainly make life easier for our mods & frustrate those who would steal the hard work of others.

Er... Tim, there are those of us who use Hotmail addy's for legetimate purposes, like email. ;] I think it'd cause grief for some of us... a couple of us mods use secondary ID's so we can lurk and snag the warez kitties. ;]

I take averyones point (maybe i should go into politics?) perhaps there could be a system involving the 1 off use of a pop3 account for the purpose of joining, and the option to use an http account thereafter. On a slight tangent, in chat, the idea of using cookies was raised, I believe r'rosity uses cookies extensively at the mo - maybe a 'tainted' cookie could be given to a banned user to prevent re-application? Now i appreciate that this wouldnt stop the determined (ab)user but it would defeat most of the brain-dead teens who have hijacked chat on so many occasions recently - who, if they are determined pirates - will have caches full of cookies anyway. I appreciate this will raise simmilar objections to the 'pop3 mail only' option - but i REALLY like renderosity and hate to see it being spoiled by cheats and timewasters, and equally think that it's a bit of an imposition to ask a mod at a graphics forum to spend all their time chasing criminals.

I'm starting to hate cats as a result of these posts. Always knew that felines were sneaky animals, but could not even imagine the wide-spread epidemic of software piracy among these kitties.

to paraphrase granny weatherwax:- Glamour! Thats what cat's have! - If cats looked like frogs we'd all realise what evil bastards they are and have nothing to do with them! obviously this dosent apply to Withnail and &I - who are lovley moggies :-)

Ok... look folks. I'm no more thrilled about the proliferation of this stuff than you guys are. But, pure and simple it's just not going to go away. I'm not going to be in favor of any "solution" to this that makes life rougher for the 50,000 plus legetimate members we have that don't make warez requests or posts. And I do honestly believe that the people doing [or attempting to do] the trafficking here are a small percentage of the overall membership. But there has been illegal software trafficking for all of the 17 years [off and on] that I've been online, and there will always be illegal software trafficking as long as there are computers and an internet. We cannot allow a handfull of people's illegal activities to force the imposition of byzantine restrictions on those who don't practice those activities. The minute we do - they win and everyone else loses. And that is plain and simple also. Naughtyhorse... it may be an imposition, but it's one that all of the moderators are aware comes with the territory. We do it because we like the site, and we accept the downside of the job with the good side of it. If we have a major objection to having to deal with the warez people, we can always choose to do something other than moderate. I don't complain about it, and I can't think of any mods off hand that do.