Revised registration requirements?

[Manoli]

There is no obvious way to register for the forum. It used to be that joining the forum was free but to post on the ‘for sale’ forum necessitated a paid membership - membership being 12 bucks a year.

Apparently no more ‘free’ registration. Full credit card details (inc name & address) required and the annual fee is hiked to 24 bucks a year.

Can find no ‘announcement’ regarding change of policy.
Can admin or other confirm this, or alternatively provide a link to register for the forum only.

[KLaban]

I just received an email from LuLa saying "We just saw that you weren't able to complete your signup for Yearly Membership".

The point is I've no interest in signing up for a yearly membership and paying a fee for the privilege of viewing the Luminous Landscape home page. The only interest I have here at Luminous Landscape is to continue contributing to the forum discussions as I have been doing for many years. Sadly if this no longer possible without a yearly membership then I will have to accept this change and move on elsewhere.

[Manoli]

Neither admin nor moderator have responded to the initial post so, barring a prompt reply, looks like a very furtive attempt to shift the goal posts.  They’ve tried this before, didn’t work so well then, doubt it’ll fare any better this time round.

I just received an email from LuLa saying "We just saw that you weren't able to complete your signup for Yearly Membership".

The point is I've no interest in signing up for a yearly membership and paying a fee for the privilege of viewing the Luminous Landscape home page. The only interest I have here at Luminous Landscape is to continue contributing to the forum discussions as I have been doing for many years. Sadly if this no longer possible without a yearly membership then I will have to accept this change and move on elsewhere.

[degrub]

@Jeremy Roussak  ?

[Manoli]

Terms of Service (last edited 2018) excerpted

With the exception of the For Sale section, no one needs to pay to register or post. We give you this space freely and with the expectation that you will respect it. Please guide your language and tone accordingly.

 

LuLa, under the ownership and guidance of Michael Reichmann, grew into an ‘internet resource’.  Any attempt today to monetise previous contributions, freely given under the Terms of Service, breaches the ‘quid pro quo’ of the above agreement.

Copyright of posts remain with the original poster(s) who, again under the ToS, remain responsible (and liable) for the content. Ownership does not pass to Luminous Landscape and/or its owners.

[Jeremy Roussak]

There is no obvious way to register for the forum. It used to be that joining the forum was free but to post on the ‘for sale’ forum necessitated a paid membership - membership being 12 bucks a year.

Apparently no more ‘free’ registration. Full credit card details (inc name & address) required and the annual fee is hiked to 24 bucks a year.

Can find no ‘announcement’ regarding change of policy.
Can admin or other confirm this, or alternatively provide a link to register for the forum only.

I'm unclear why you are raising this question, as you yourself obviously continue to have access to the forums.

@Jeremy Roussak  ?

I moderate the discussion forums; I am not part of LuLa's management and have no knowledge of any changes to the rules governing access. I will raise the question with Jon.

Jeremy

[Manoli]

I'm unclear why you are raising this question …

Because, IF TRUE,  it is of interest and relevance to all members, both past and present. I would have thought that would be obvious.

The question is easily resolved, as I said in my original post, by posting the link to register for the forum only. If there is no change to the terms of service, there is nothing further to discuss.

[KLaban]

Jeremy, the point is I was trying to login on a different device. I entered my usual sign-in details including email and password and then was taken directly to the registration page and could go no further without registering and paying the fee, which I wasn't happy doing.

[Kyle Jackson]

Jeremy, the point is I was trying to login on a different device. I entered my usual sign-in details including email and password and then was taken directly to the registration page and could go no further without registering and paying the fee, which I wasn't happy doing.

If you are already a registered user and simply trying to login to the forums only, this works for me:
- Go to Luminous Landscape home page.
- Click Forum.
- (Optional) Reload/refresh the Forum page in your web browser (helps with a server error that often occurrs on the first click).
- Click Login (Forum Only).
- Login as usual.
- It takes you back to the LuLa home page.
- Click Forum again.
- Now good to go!

I agree it's a convoluted mess but that's LuLa!

[KLaban]

If you are already a registered user and simply trying to login to the forums only, this works for me:
- Go to Luminous Landscape home page.
- Click Forum.
- (Optional) Reload/refresh the Forum page in your web browser (helps with a server error that often occurrs on the first click).
- Click Login (Forum Only).
- Login as usual.
- It takes you back to the LuLa home page.
- Click Forum again.
- Now good to go!

I agree it's a convoluted mess but that's LuLa!

Kyle, many thanks that worked for me, but as you say it's a convoluted mess.

[Jeremy Roussak]

I agree it's a convoluted mess but that's LuLa!

That's not entirely fair. The issue is that the software for the main site and that for the forums are completely separate, which is why you need to log in separately to the main site and the forum site. The forum software runs under an open-source setup called Simple Machines Forum.

I think the forum runs on a fairly old version of the software. However, it's very highly configured and I'm reluctant to fiddle with it, as the configuration requires a very much more detailed knowledge of HTML and in particular CSS than I have (or wish to have).

However, I'm not sure why you should be having such difficulties: I have recently set up a SimpleMachines discussion forum site for my own camera club and we've not encountered any even remotely similar issues. It may be that something was tweaked to prevent unpaid access to the For Sale board.

Jeremy, the point is I was trying to login on a different device. I entered my usual sign-in details including email and password and then was taken directly to the registration page and could go no further without registering and paying the fee, which I wasn't happy doing.

That's understandable. Are you sure you were using your form sign-in details, and not those for the main site?

Jeremy

[KLaban]

Hi Jeremy, I'm not a paid up Home Page member, I only have sign-in details for the Forums.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Hi Jeremy, I'm not a paid up Home Page member, I only have sign-in details for the Forums.

Then I'm stumped. I'll try to investigate.

Jeremy

[Manoli]

Then I'm stumped. I'll try to investigate.

Excellent, now to get back *on topic*

i’ve tried creating a new dummy account both via the main menu on the homepage and the register button on the forum page. in both cases you are finally presented with an ‘invoice’ for $24 to cover one year’s subscription. There is currently no ‘free’ access to the forum for new members.

If this is indeed the case, please
a/ clarify whether this new policy will, moving forward, be applied to existing members, and
b/ update the Terms of Service, to correctly reflect the revised ‘status’.

If incorrect, the issue is easily resolved by posting a link to register for free access to the forum   If there is no change to the ToS, there is nothing further to discuss.

[Jeremy Roussak]

There is currently no ‘free’ access to the forum for new members.

If this is indeed the case, please
a/ clarify whether this new policy will, moving forward, be applied to existing members, and
b/ update the Terms of Service, to correctly reflect the revised ‘status’.

As I wrote earlier in this thread,

I moderate the discussion forums; I am not part of LuLa's management and have no knowledge of any changes to the rules governing access. I will raise the question with Jon.

I have done as I indicated I would.

Jeremy

[swindy]

Hello All!

First off thank you for participating here and with LuLa.   And - thanks Jeremy for all you do. 

Sorry for the login problems-we're trying to fix them.  We're working through lots of web improvements. 

 To note, there have not been any changes to the forum access and it remains free.  However, we DO have problems technically with the signup as it is.

 The forum works without a subscription...however you must have a LuLa login.  You can create a LuLa account and not pay and then you can access the forum login with those credentials.  Also, right now, the forum "register" button on here sends you to the yearly membership sign up for LuLa - which is confusing.

Temp fix for free access...sign up on LuLa with the email you want to use (don't put in your payment info) and then those same credentials will give you access to the forum.  We're sorting it out now to streamline it.  Manoli's correct - a simple link to register for free access to the forum. So that needs to be fixed.  Please stand by and hopefully that work around helps for the time being.

Thanks again.