"Several l of the free email services are blocked due to spammers..."

[Lone Fox]

What do you think of forums that block registration from users with free email accounts? This is the first time I have ever encountered this.

First off, this is not a temporary block due to a surge of spammers.
Secondly, nowhere on the website does it mention that free email accounts are blocked.
Thirdly, AOL, Yahoo!, Gmail... all of these main email usage accounts are blocked.

I registered with two different email accounts and the only message I receive is:
"This email address has been banned"

There is a thread on this forum I really want to reply to (I have the EXACT same problem).
Yeah... thanks.

The funny thing is, I don't necessarily have a problem with blocking free email accounts; however, no-where does it mention this on the site. I personally emailed theme using the "Contact Us" form, and surprisingly they replied back.

 

[steven s]

It's been discussed before.
Personally I don't like to alienate potential members.

On our forum I always reply back to those who are not able to register due to a flagged ip address.
In fact, I register for them. No sense in making it even more difficult.

Add: I do have a message if you feel you have been blocked in error to use the contact us page.

 

[Lone Fox]

My IP Address isn't flagged.

 

[steven s]

My IP Address isn't flagged.

I understand. I block ip addresses.
Their deny message should say to contact someone.
That is not how I treat potential new members.

 

[karll]

Blocking all free email addresses seems completely silly. (Unless in the extremely unlikely scenario that they are focusing on a very narrow segment of potential users who they know all have other email addresses.)

I have in the past blocked certain email domains known for their popularity amongst trolls. (I.e. use-and-throw-away email addresses such as hushmail.)

 

[tenants]

Banning temporary email providers makes sense, like: guerrillamail or mytempemail (these are often used by spammers to register and then discarded)

But banning free email accounts seems like a last resort, the forum admin clearly didn't know of better options to prevent bots, but there are plenty of options, some of them are even free: http://xenforo.com/community/resources/dealing-with-forum-spam.980/

 

[Cal]

Banning free emails is crazy, however banning throw away emails is not. Is that what you mean by free? I have trouble all the time with email providers like mainlinator, etc. Those are the guys who troll, make sock puppets, and cause issues. In addition I need to email members at times and a throw away email defeats this purpose. So I simply do not allow these email extensions.

This sums it up: http://www.theadminzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37493