New to this forum, never heard of the game before yesterday. Is this some kind of special organization or something? I had to take a test in order to join the forum. took me at least 3 guesses. and now when I post, nothing happens? I can go somewhere else if I am in a place I shouldn't be. Someone tell me something please.

No.

What did you want to happen?

You are the great and almighty OZ.

This is a forum for a very old text based empire building, resource gathering, space trading and fighting game..
I would assume that the difficulty you had joining the forum is the anti-spambot measures, basically standard nowadays to keep our forums free of unwanted advertising by automated spambots.
You are not in the wrong place, this is a public forum for anyone interested in playing or hosting Tradewars.
So... welcome

Hope the Spam Bots don't figure out that method of passing the questionair

I think if you fail more than a couple of times, it'll lock you out. But mainly, it's not worth a spammer's time to bother trying to get through a unique anti-spam like that.

Anyone who finds it too difficult can contact me or another mod. We had anm issue with a blind player who couldn't even know the questions. No spammer will bother doing that. I was worried it might be too restrictive, but it's been up for awhile now and I think it's fine.

It's too restrictive JP. I remember trying to get in here. It was only my desire to get at the game that made me keep trying.

Make two sections. One that requires a basic (and easy) login sequence, then privatize the important parts. I make my new guests request access to the better parts of the forum, that way I can personally check them out. I am virtually spam free.

How about just add a stock ship list to the registration screen, then ask someone to pick from that list? Returnees might not remember the list of stock ships, but it takes a lot of effort to code spambots for that degree of flexibility (more than it's worth).

I used to get complaints when the CAPTCHA was too hard to read. I've only had one complaint about this. Based on feedback it seems easier. But I'll see about putting a note on there to email or PM if you find the question too difficult. It doesn't seem like people are just getting turned away at the door.