What can cause 'Forbidden' on a public forum?

[Fidcal]

I joined some forums but they are quite draconian. It was hard to see where to post my message. Then my first post was moved by a moderator. Then it was moved from there by another moderator! My next contribution was deleted by a moderator for three absurd reasons one of which it was in the wrong forum!

 

Now I get a forbidden error when I try to visit the forums so I wondering is the server down or am I banned somehow? Weird. I deleted my cookie then relaunched Opera but still the same. Maybe they can track my address.

 

Would anyone care to try this link and see if they get a forbidden error please?

 

http://www.hpfanfictionforums.com/

 

Or you can go to http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/ and click the forums link on the right side.

[jdude]

Both seem to work for me. Sounds like a frustrating forum.

[SiyahParsomen]

To complete your registeration firstly, you have to read this and this and this (3 page rules), then post here and here and here in 3 days to become a fully member. Then after 150 post, you'll be able to use search engine! I don't even want to mention that you have to fill 3 fields for preventing spambot on registration. They are simply saying GTFOH.

[Fidcal]

How strange. Yes, I think my last post I might have been mildly critical of their search 'feature'.

 

Can you see if I am still a member? I'm Hippothestrowl there. I'm not sure how you can even search for me. Except perhaps manually the last few posts within the last 10 days I reckon. As I recall I posted in something like writing resources and of course there is a mandatory forum or thread you first have to post in.

 

The odd thing is that I am logged into their sister domain http://www.harrypotterfanfiction.com/ and I can write and post a story for them but I'm not allowed to use their forums to get help to write it.

 

The other main fan fiction website is http://www.fanfiction.net/ but this is the exact opposite. It seems totally anarchic and I don't think it takes much to become a moderator and then you can create endless forums of your own. This results in thousands of meaningless forums which make no sense and I suspect duplicate one another. For instance, certain things are common to writing a fan fiction whether it be Potter or Sherlock Holmes I would guess.

 

As a matter of trivia, it's really interesting to look at their list of book categories. Just to put it in perspective, you'll see for example, there are typically just a handful for most categories but noteably large ones are:

 

about 75 for Pirates of the Caribbean,

about 300 for Robin Hood,

about 400 for Charles Dickens

heading for 2000 for Pride and Prejudice.

 

But there are over HALF A FRIGGIN' MILLION for Harry Potter!!!!!!!!

 

Kind of puts it in perspective don't it? My little effort is likely to get lost in that lot.

[SiyahParsomen]

no luck. Since I'm not fully member, I can't look up member list, search something and view last posts. Try anonymouse.org to access.

[SiyahParsomen]

thanks to google I found your profile. Looksie you are not banned.

 

[Fidcal]

OK, thanks. I doubt then I am officially blocked or surely they would just close my account. I can only guess someone or something has blocked my web address.

 

I Just tried Internet Explorer instead of Opera in case it was a config error but I still just get Forbidden.

 

The only other thing I can think of is to log off broadband with my modem and log on again. AFAIK I am fairly sure I chose the option to have a dynamic web address but possibly it only actually changes if I log out via the modem which only normally happens if my net connection breaks.

[stumpy]

there's a post from site admin saying they're having problems with the forum and server database.

although I wouldn't join that forum, too many restrictions.

 

Although got a two week ban from the 2k forums for posting something about bioshock in the bioshock 2 forum. So a lot of forums are really restrictive on what you can post.

 

Have you tried the private browsing mode in firefox, it stops the site your visiting from reading your ip address, and country location.

Edited July 31, 2011 by stumpy

[Fidcal]

Yeah, I'll download a new Firefox and check it out. I've got an old version on my other computer but it's time I took another look anyway. Thanks.

[Fidcal]

No, just the same in Firefox. Is this the privacy setting that says Tell websites you don't want to be tracked? Or is there another privacy setting somewhere not on the privacy tab?

[Serpentine]

The privacy stuff in FF is quite flawed and has a really colourful track record, it also doesnt hide your IP or anything like that. Opera's implementation is quite simple and elegant in comparison, and just makes a tab which does not use any passed cookies/storage/cached files (not sure about flash atm, think it does in the next version). It also doesnt use extra headers/UA to request privacy if the site supports it - something I still dont understand why you'd ever want. Just right click in the tab bar and make a private tab.

 

That said I prefer also using Opera configured to have the default : Only accept cookies from the site I'm visiting, Delete all new cookies on exit, Do not send referrals. Then when you use a forum or whatever where you want the site to store a cookie, you just use the right click -> edit site specific to allow its cookies to be kept. Same thing for referals, tho that gets tricky for Imageshack and the AMD driver site, where you need to edit the dynamic address profile - but once you get used to it, it's rather nice.

[Fidcal]

Yes that's what I do - same defaults, etc.

 

I didn't know about the privacy tab though. I looked in security prefs yesterday but not tabs so I didn't see it. Anyways, just tried it but still get forbidden.

[Fidcal]

I disconnected from the net using my modem and logged in again. It gave me a new IP address.

 

WOOHOO! I can access the forums!

 

IN YOUR FACE hpfanfictionforums!

 

Those people have some serious Umbridge-like issues.

[Fidcal]

This is what I posted the other day which apparently they blocked me for!

 

Another Poster: "You can't search because the search function is only available for use when you have 150 or more posts."

 

Me: "Seems rather counter-productive. Maybe it's to avoid overloading the server."

 

What an evil bastard I am posting abuse like that.

[Komag]

Wow, that's more Nazi than I've seen before, amazing