Registering as a new member on the forum - new requirements

UPDATE: The forum is currently closed to new members, until I have time to update the backend that runs it. People are still sending in join requests though, so I've closed the comments here for now. When the forums re-open, you'll hear it on the main site. In the meantime, if you want to join a Just Bento community and you're on Facebook, please consider following the Facebook Page.

If you have tried to register as a new member on the site in the last few weeks, you may have wondered what happened to your application. Well, it probably got buried in a deluge, and I do mean a deluge, of attempted registrations by spammers and other lowlifes of the internet world. With the ever growing popularity of this site, it has gotten to the point where it's practically impossible to wade through all the chaff to get to the people who genuinely want to register and participate in our forums.

My intention for the forums was never to try to grow the biggest bento-related community online or anything like that. The JustBento forums are, and will remain, a nice, friendly relaxed place to talk amongst like-minded people. While we have two great moderators in Bronwyn and Loretta, most of the back-end parts of this site are still maintained by me, and I'd much rather spend my time dreaming up new bento recipes than fighting off spammers and such.

So, starting today, open registrations for the site and forums are closed. Remember you can still leave comments and reply to forum posts without being registered and logged in. You just can't start new forum topics, and your comments/replies are held for approval. If you do want to register and participate fully in the forums, here's what to do:

__Indicate that you'd like to register and become site member, as a reply to this post. Be sure to include the following: __

  • Your desired username - if it's a short one or a commonly used name or word in English or Japanese, you may want have 2 or 3 options (I think we have several Ichigo variations registered for example).
  • A short paragraph describing yourself, why you're interested in bentos, and so on.
  • Your email address (Don't worry, your email address will not be made publicly visible...and we won't spam you! Remember we're doing all this to avoid spam! We hate spam, unless it's on a Spam musubi!)

We'll review your application as it were, and create a user account for you with a temporary password, and email you with instructions for how to log in.

(Note: If you've registered in the last few weeks and you haven't gotten an email approving your registration yet, please use this method to re-register. Let us know what username you tried to register with and we'll do our best to retrieve it for you.)

I know this seems like a bother, but it's really getting to the point where I have to take this step or think about even shutting down the forums -- which I definitely do not want to do. So - we're going to give this a try. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding!!

ETA: Some people are leaving general-topic questions under this topic. Don't do that please. You'll never get answers for these questions, because this topic is for new forum membership requests only (and don't get seen by anyone other than forum admins).