Someone in Australia who is interested in the subject of a thread
I've been participating in (about the appearance of the Moon's
terminator relative to the position of the Sun) just e-mailed me,
saying that he is unable to register:

I looked in the alphabetical list of members and did not find his
name there. He does have a common first name: Bill.

What should I tell him to do?

Also, how can one search directly for a specific member name?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"The other planets?
Well, they just happen to be there, but the point of rockets is to explore them!"
-- Kai Yeves

Hmmm. Pardon the double name. I'll be getting rid of this account as soon as I'm done here. I had no difficulty registering a new user. I left the referrer line blank. I used a password with six characters and two digits, though I suspect a single character would have been sufficient.

Some people are forbidden to register because their particular IP address has been used by someone who is banned, and rejoins with a new name. If you can find his/her IP address we can check this out for you.

Concerning a specific member name... so far to me, the system has seemed kind of awkward. Usually after about five clicks I can get to the specific name I want to investigate.

Concerning the name Bill, we have about 35 user names that start with bill or Bill. You can see the list by going to Members List on the bottom bar of the screen, then clicking on the "B", and going to screen 12 (and top of 13). He can't pick a duplicate of any previous name.

__________________
Forming opinions as we speak

There's a lot of users starting with Bill, oncluding one named Bill.

Are you sure he hasn't just hit the problem of trying to register with a name that's already taken?

Edit to say: click on Members List, click on Search Members, type Bill, Click Go.
No need to guess how far you have to go from the initial letter.

__________________
"God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have ...
"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible."Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

Thanks, antoniseb.

His name is Bill Denheld, and he gave me this link to his
website: www.pixmaker.com.au/moonsun/moonsun.html

I don't know much about how IP addresses work. This is from
the header of his e-mail to me:

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"The other planets?
Well, they just happen to be there, but the point of rockets is to explore them!"
-- Kai Yeves

That was my first guess, and what I suggested to him in my reply.
He didn't tell me what name(s) he tried to use to register.

I looked in the alphabetical list for "Bill Denheld", found a lot of
Bills when I finally reached the right page, and quit when I found
no exact match at that point in the list. I could have kept looking
through the rest of the Bills...

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"The other planets?
Well, they just happen to be there, but the point of rockets is to explore them!"
-- Kai Yeves

I've sent him an email suggesting alternate names, and otherwise offering help.

__________________
Forming opinions as we speak

Yeah, it sounds to me like he's trying to register a name that's already taken. Either that or he doesn't understand that he needs to register first before he can post. He's entering in the login name he'd like to have, but it doesn't exist so he's getting an error.

__________________
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today - Free space news delivered by email every weekday.

Don't forget, we've only had the Internet for a few months down here in Australia, takes a bit of getting used to.

__________________
BugMeNot A portal to bypass free-site registration.

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer - renowned 19th Century German philosopher.

No worries, mate!

__________________
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

You do realize that to connect to the North American internet sites from Australia, you have to turn your computer upside down?

No, Enzp, the servers in Australia do that automatically now.
Until a few months ago you had to do it yourself. And you
never had to turn the whole computer upside down. Either
the monitor or the RAM, but not both. If you turned both
over they would cancel each other out.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"The other planets?
Well, they just happen to be there, but the point of rockets is to explore them!"
-- Kai Yeves