Sunday 23 January 2011

The noble art of self-importance

I'm not by any stretch of the imagination an extrovert, outgoing sort of person. But over the years I have joined and taken part in various online forums and "community" sites with a fair amount of success - it's nice to swap experiences and ideas with people who share the same interest. Most such sites (understandably) won't let you take part or use certain features unless you become a member.

So, when I thought that perhaps the
High Heel Place sounded a cool one to belong to, I duly filled in a registration form and awaited the email with the validation link to complete the process. Normally, that's all there is to it with these things. So I was a bit surprised to find that they have a second stage which entails approving the account (presumably by an actual person) before you can do anything that you weren't able to before. I awaited another email......

I discovered it in my spam box. It said my registration had been removed, as it "did not meet our membership requirements". There followed a list of five standard possible reasons, including unsuitable usernames, porn spamming, duplicate registrations, guys masqerading as girls (it asks on the registration form what sex you are) and faked country of origins - but it just bluntly said "Sorry" at the end. It's all apparently to save themselves the hassle of dealing with problematic users by not letting them join in the first place. Right! There's no way of querying it: it didn't seem to have occurred to them that they might actually have made a mistake.

They have to win a prize to start with I think for one of the most bizarre registration procedures I've come across - either the system validates and accepts them upfront or else a person checks first, but not both. It's their loss, anyway: from what I saw of it their site didn't seem to have anything exceptional. Either way, I can tell when I'm not wanted!

2 comments:

  1. I think they've wounded your pride just a little.

    And I don't blame you.

    If one finds something which looks to be right up one's street then it's a bit of a slap in the face to be told that somehow one is not suitable.

    If you search again maybe you'll find a much better place where all the people who have been rejected by High Heal Place are members!

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  2. Yes, I probably ought to put my hands up to a slight case of sour grapes there.

    Though oddly enough, their Terms of Service (in the box everybody ticks to say they've read, but no-one actually does read) makes no mention of it.

    I'd already found somewhere better: they were my second choice anyway!

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