Amibay still has registration issues.

[chocsplease]

Hi,

Well I tried to register for an Amibay account last night and got instantly banned. Why? Well according to the email I received from one of their admin staff its because their server does not believe I live in London.

The staff member suggested I email them with proof that I live in London....

Like erm, how? How do you prove you live where you say? I guess I could scan in a bill or something, but anyone could reproduce a fake one in Word in a less than an hour, same for photos...

Looking at forums I'm not the first person this has happened to either <sigh>

Are there any Amibay staff on these forums who can fix this, and fix it permanently?

I'm trying to register as 14amps (well why not?).

Thanks.

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by chocsplease

Hi,

Well I tried to register for an Amibay account last night and got instantly banned. Why? Well according to the email I received from one of their admin staff its because their server does not believe I live in London.

The staff member suggested I email them with proof that I live in London....

Like erm, how? How do you prove you live where you say? I guess I could scan in a bill or something, but anyone could reproduce a fake one in Word in a less than an hour, same for photos...

Looking at forums I'm not the first person this has happened to either <sigh>

Are there any Amibay staff on these forums who can fix this, and fix it permanently?

I'm trying to register as 14amps (well why not?).

Thanks.

What? You got an explaination why they banned you? I registered about two years ago, e-mailed a few times and still don't know anything. I thought amibay admins were a myth

[chocsplease]

Originally Posted by michaelz

What? You got an explaination why they banned you? I registered about two years ago, e-mailed a few times and still don't know anything. I thought amibay admins were a myth

Well this one wasn't - whether they will be able to do anything about the problem is another question entirely.

[Zetr0]

@chocsplease / michaelz

Unfortunately some sign ups do fall into a strange category where their ISP they connect through is absolutely no where near their city or town of where they live - this does raise concerns as in the past AmiBay has had attempts by some nefarious people to scam fellow members.

The team work hard to ensure a speedy manner to resolves these problems - but please know they are not paid individuals they are committed and voluntary - they do have a life outside AmiBay.

There are over 100 sign ups a day with AmiBay, some are bots, some are fake accounts but by and large most are all well intentioned new members to the community.

I would humbly suggest that you contact Sardine and include the name of ISP (BT/Tiscali/Virgin etc) that you are using - this will help if in verifying an account.

At the end of the day its really about doing as much as possible to protect members from scammers and other things that might exploit them.

[Mr.Flibble]

IIRC most UK ISP's don't link the IP to the user's geographical location.. Most of them tend to be the ISP's main location, or where they peer from..

My home IP is listed as Manchester, London, Salford or somewhere else, but never in Suffolk where I live, but Zen, my ISP, is based up that way.

The only times I've seen half reliable geolocation is from leased lines, and occassionally, cable connections.

[chocsplease]

Originally Posted by Mr.Flibble

IIRC most UK ISP's don't link the IP to the user's geographical location.. Most of them tend to be the ISP's main location, or where they peer from..

My home IP is listed as Manchester, London, Salford or somewhere else, but never in Suffolk where I live, but Zen, my ISP, is based up that way.

The only times I've seen half reliable geolocation is from leased lines, and occassionally, cable connections.

I guessed as much, odd thing is that my Android tablet gets my location close even with the exact location locating thingy turned off. Wonder how it does that?

[mattsoft]

no problems registering on amibay here, but cannot for the life of me get an "approved" account on amiga.org. admins don't respond, and won't approve my account so i can post. not using a VPN or anything. tried from 2 different email accounts with different ISPs. bummer!

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by mattsoft

no problems registering on amibay here, but cannot for the life of me get an "approved" account on amiga.org. admins don't respond, and won't approve my account so i can post. not using a VPN or anything. tried from 2 different email accounts with different ISPs. bummer!

That one just took me 1,5 years

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@chocsplease / michaelz

Unfortunately some sign ups do fall into a strange category where their ISP they connect through is absolutely no where near their city or town of where they live - this does raise concerns as in the past AmiBay has had attempts by some nefarious people to scam fellow members.

The team work hard to ensure a speedy manner to resolves these problems - but please know they are not paid individuals they are committed and voluntary - they do have a life outside AmiBay.

There are over 100 sign ups a day with AmiBay, some are bots, some are fake accounts but by and large most are all well intentioned new members to the community.

I would humbly suggest that you contact Sardine and include the name of ISP (BT/Tiscali/Virgin etc) that you are using - this will help if in verifying an account.

At the end of the day its really about doing as much as possible to protect members from scammers and other things that might exploit them.

I think it's a matter of time amibay dies out because of their policies. Geoiplocation is unreliable now a days

[trixster]

I doubt amibay will die out...

[Lonewolf10]

Originally Posted by chocsplease

I guessed as much, odd thing is that my Android tablet gets my location close even with the exact location locating thingy turned off. Wonder how it does that?

If it has it's own SIM, like mobile phones, then it will calculate your location based on the 2 (or 3) nearby cell towers that are picking up your SIM. The 'exact location locating thingy' is about giving apps permission to share the information.

If you use WiFi, then it must get it from somewhere in the WiFi setup.

[Daedalus]

I doubt it will die out either, but I haven't yet felt a need to jump through the hoops involved in signing up. Perhaps a I will some day, though confirming someone's general location can't be all that good a security measure - there are ~10 million people in London after all.

[chocsplease]

Originally Posted by Daedalus

I doubt it will die out either, but I haven't yet felt a need to jump through the hoops involved in signing up. Perhaps a I will some day, though confirming someone's general location can't be all that good a security measure - there are ~10 million people in London after all.

At least (most of 'em seem to be on my train in the mornings). However I apparently am not one of them, according to Amibay I live in Wales - nice place but it rains a lot.

If it was not for the fact that there was a rather nice accelerator going begging there I would not have bothered either. Now given the time to try and fix this, and it still isn't, I've missed out. Roll on the Vampire A1200.

[wiz12]

Is Amibay working at the moment?, I get a site error when I try to go there?

[Predseda]

Confirmed, Amibay is down since the morning.

Originally Posted by michaelz

What? You got an explaination why they banned you? I registered about two years ago, e-mailed a few times and still don't know anything. I thought amibay admins were a myth

Yeah I tried to join 4 years ago and I think my ISP (BT) were showing my location as somewhere in Scotland ! and I don't even live in Scotland lol !! I stated as much to them in an email (And no VPN was used either btw)

I got the instant ban upon registration stuff...and I suspect it was because my ISP location compared to my address (IP Geolocation is not reliable btw)

I emailed them several times and never received a reply, personally I would not go onto another forum and beg for membership.

And there is NO WAY I would be handing over any "Proof of my address" to an unknown person(s)..........do they comply with the data protection act ? - what happens your "proof" ? does it sit in someones inbox ??? - could it be used for illegal purposes ? - that would be a big NO for me.

There are plenty of other good sites out there, no big loss imho.

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by Amiga600XT

And there is NO WAY I would be handing over any "Proof of my address" to an unknown person(s)..........do they comply with the data protection act ? - what happens your "proof" ? does it sit in someones inbox ??? - could it be used for illegal purposes ? - that would be a big NO for me.


There are plenty of other good sites out there, no big loss imho.

I fully agree on both points. Before you know it you have a maxed out credit card on your address. Maybe not because the Amibay admins are that bad, but because their email got hacked for example.

Too bad some people see it as the only way to sell their hardware. Because some of the real nice collector items are already hard to come by, closed up behind a forum with obscure rules about who can enter and who not based on false assumptions makes collecting some stuff quite hard.

[Zetr0]

@Thread

Normally I don't get involved with idiots that bash AmiBay, but I do tire of some of the most outlandish statements against its community and staff!

Some of the snide and absolutely laudable comments in this thread show more about ones interaction with the community in general - All the AmiBay staff want to do is to do the very best of their ability ensure no one gets scammed.

Over the last 10 years of AmiBay, there have been some nefarious types trying to rip people off - this happens everywhere there is money, Craigs list, eBay, Gumtree to name just a few.

AmiBay has had some scammers as well, but these are caught (including some trying to sell high-profile high priced software which were copies or hardware that never materialize) AmiBay Staff work in the back ground as best it can to get peoples money back from scammers including working with "Interpol" on one occasion.

Of course you could just slap up a "caveat emptor" buyer-beware - but this is NOT how a community works, AmiBay cherishes its members - it exists because of them - so when one person gets ripped off - we all do.

So if there are a couple of extra hoops to negotiate to sign up, thats in YOUR benefit.

No one is asking for life details here, just a couple of questions in the rare instance something looks hinky, suspect on signup.

Originally Posted by michaelz

I fully agree on both points. Before you know it you have a maxed out credit card on your address. Maybe not because the Amibay admins are that bad, but because their email got hacked for example.

This is utter tripe and only tries to allude AmiBay staff as stealing your credentials to commit fraud - wittingly or otherwise - this a contentious libellous statement!

Originally Posted by michaelz

Too bad some people see it as the only way to sell their hardware. Because some of the real nice collector items are already hard to come by, closed up behind a forum with obscure rules about who can enter and who not based on false assumptions makes collecting some stuff quite hard.

Too bad? for whom? AmiBay has over 18,000 accounts with over 3,300 active members every month.

That's a lot of work for non-paid individuals to ensure everyone is playing by the rules and its fair - if you ask me its a testament to the commitment of the members of AmiBay

Since we are on about what you term as obscure rules - well they are published in multiple colours right on the forum. You have to read them before signing up as at the end of the day AmiBay is a site primarily for the transaction of money and goods between members - from all over the world. It is from the back end of this it has become (atleast for me) one of the most dedicated, friendly and delightful community on the internet.

Sadly Haters are going to hate - not I or anyone else can stop that, but I do hope you pause for thought and ask yourself if you could do better, and HOW you could do better for ALL members and not just yourself.

[michaelz]

Originally Posted by Zetr0

@Thread

Normally I don't get involved with idiots that bash AmiBay, but I do tire of some of the most outlandish statements against its community and staff!

Some of the snide and absolutely laudable comments in this thread show more about ones interaction with the community in general - All the AmiBay staff want to do is to do the very best of their ability ensure no one gets scammed.

Over the last 10 years of AmiBay, there have been some nefarious types trying to rip people off - this happens everywhere there is money, Craigs list, eBay, Gumtree to name just a few.

AmiBay has had some scammers as well, but these are caught (including some trying to sell high-profile high priced software which were copies or hardware that never materialize) AmiBay Staff work in the back ground as best it can to get peoples money back from scammers including working with "Interpol" on one occasion.

Of course you could just slap up a "caveat emptor" buyer-beware - but this is NOT how a community works, AmiBay cherishes its members - it exists because of them - so when one person gets ripped off - we all do.

So if there are a couple of extra hoops to negotiate to sign up, thats in YOUR benefit.

No one is asking for life details here, just a couple of questions in the rare instance something looks hinky, suspect on signup.



This is utter tripe and only tries to allude AmiBay staff as stealing your credentials to commit fraud - wittingly or otherwise - this a contentious libellous statement!



Too bad? for whom? AmiBay has over 18,000 accounts with over 3,300 active members every month.

That's a lot of work for non-paid individuals to ensure everyone is playing by the rules and its fair - if you ask me its a testament to the commitment of the members of AmiBay

Since we are on about what you term as obscure rules - well they are published in multiple colours right on the forum. You have to read them before signing up as at the end of the day AmiBay is a site primarily for the transaction of money and goods between members - from all over the world. It is from the back end of this it has become (atleast for me) one of the most dedicated, friendly and delightful community on the internet.

Sadly Haters are going to hate - not I or anyone else can stop that, but I do hope you pause for thought and ask yourself if you could do better, and HOW you could do better for ALL members and not just yourself.

As long as I can register, be blocked instantly, never get a response to honest inquiry's why and apparently not worth the interest, as think everything I wrote is true. Amibay might have high standards, but as long as it is also keeping out honest people, it's a casino that makes it door policy to tough. I don't hate amibay for no apparent reason, I don't like them because they apparently hate me.

[trixster]

I think Amibay is absolutely brilliant, I've bought and sold plenty of things on there and have never had any issues whatsoever. I consider it a go-to resource for getting retro computer stuff you can't find elsewhere at a decent price.