Mandatory Home Page URL...
 

Just a little gripe, it seems the Home Page URL is a mandatory field. I've had trouble in the past linking to my site and want to playing things safe at vb.org so I've had to set it to google.com which is not helpful for anyone.

Can't it be mandatory at sign up and then not so there after? Cheers. :)

It should be mandatory and anyone who doesn't fill it in properly should be shot !

It is so damn annoying when someone asks a question or has a problem and you can't visit their site - which you often need to do to see the problem yourself.

Well I doubt few people other than myself in my situation would go about removing their site after registration. So why not make it mandatory at registration, and not afterwards?

No one said it had to be yoursite, only requirement is a url :)
ps. im using yahoo.com lol

As I stated in the thread on hack pirates, I think it should just be automatically entered as the licensed vb site of the member.

Not sure I agree with that, a person pays to own a licence so I think he should have the right to keep it "private" if he wants. Some people are just paranoid that way and don't like having there name used here linked to there site. I guess for a few different reasons.

Although, I do agree that it's a real annoying trick when people ask for help with there site, and have no link leading to it.

Maybe a common sense "Rule" here that states if you ask for help with hacks "you must make your site lnk available here on the site" might be a better idea. Then at least members can say to other members asking for help with no site link displayed. Ask again when you add your site link as the rules states here when asking for help. While still leaving others who figure things out for themselves, to keep there site private if they wish to please both sides of the coin.

I don't mind adding my link in my profile. Its a quick field that needs to be filled out and your done. Though maybe having a user setting asking to show it publicly or not might make eveyone happier. :) Kinda like the birthday setting.

we may change the system in the future, but right now, it will stay mandatory for the mentioned reasons

It wasn't mandatory when I registered...

I don't think it should be either, it's up to the user if they want people to see their site or not, for their own reasons (and what happens about people who have porn sites?). Dictating that people HAVE to start divulging private information to the public won't go down well imo.

With the 3.5 upgrade? :D

nope, if then after the upgrade...

I was thinking of making another thread about this, but I shouldn't spam.

The version number. I think it's a liablity showing it the postbit like that. Example, vb. 3.5.x comes out, potentially a hacker could run the advanced search and find all users running 3.5.4 or lower very quickly.

Combined with the mandatory home page url, they would have a VERY large pool of vunerable bulletin boards which they could easily hack.

( even those admins who are sensible enough to hide their version number in their footer )

I suggest the vb Version field be made hidden from guests and even registered users, so only licenced users can see it.

[/words of paranoia/wisdom]

hmm, making the versionnumber visible to just licensed ones shouldn't be a problem i think

or maybe combine just use the option for other infos beeing displayed to unlicensed users.

i'll play around a bit :)

hmm, better now? ^^

^ ^
Yay!

I knew my 'different' point of view would do something useful some day :D

Good thinking. :p

Isn't that against vB's legal agreement?

Whether the mandatory homepage URL is for legal or supportive purposes, it is what it is. There isn't a clear-cut solution. We can agree or disagree on the matter but the simplicity of it all is that we chose to be here. The reality is if members have the right to keep their URL's private then support can also impose the right to refuse service. The way I see it linking the URL is free advertisement. :)

I've no idea - but have seen many people mention they can't post the link because of the nature of the site (maybe Im thinking of TAZ?)

Not sure what you mean :-/

Jelsoft use the license number to determine who is entitled to support or not (on both vb.com and vb.org)

That comes with the e-mail, but not the URL. The URL seems to be the authentication (license/domain binding). Still, people can choose to tell the truth or not.

I'm moreless playing the devil's advocate in this discussion I found interesting. :)

It is not against the licence agreement as far as I can tell...

Chris

The porn or URL requirement?

The porn...

Chris

No. Porn is definitely allowed. Why would Jelsoft care what type of content a customer allows on their site? Besides, if that were the case, then many Big-Boards are in trouble.

As far as I can tell the only thing that Jelsoft forbid in their licence agreement is using their software for the Illegal distribution of software i.e. warez...

Chris

Sorry.. I missed the mentioned reasons.

What were they again?