User e-mail and bogus registration

[arango]

Dear all,

Recently, we are getting requests from new users trying to get access to the ROMS web site and software with bogus information and e-mails. One of the newest strategies is to get a temporary (one-day e-mail address) from an overseas educational or research institution, in order to bypass the required information for ROMS registration.

ROMS is distributed freely to the scientific and operational ocean modeling communities. As a courtesy, we expect new users to give us accurate and full information during the registration process. So please fill the information correctly and give us as much information as you can. It only takes few minutes to fill the registration form.

We look the registration process as a pass or fail quiz. If new users fail providing the necessary information during registration, we assume that this type of user is going to have a lot of problems following the instructions to run a model as complex as ROMS.

The registration is rejected automatically if:

• * New user fails to provide an accepted e-mail. For security reasons, only institutional or governmental domains are allowed. Other domains, like .com and .net are rejected automatically.
  
  * New user fails to fill all the requested registration fields, usually in red.
  
  * New user fails in describing his/her research and reasons for requesting ROMS. This is a very important information for us. Please be as verbose as you can. We expect new users to write more than one sentence when describing his/her work. New requests are declined if this information is not filled properly. Meaningless sentences are unwelcome. Please provide information about your research application like physical processes, realistic or idealized set-up, interdisplinary coupling, resolution, forcing fields. Are you a graduate student or a post-doctoral fellow?

Unkind demands and requests of ROMS are ignored. Sometimes we get very ungrateful e-mails requesting ROMS. We absolutely don't have any obligation to answer such requests and they are ignored. We recommend you to be amicable and thoughtful when sending such a request.

We would appreciate the old users to have his/her e-mail address up to date. Otherwise, access to web site and software will be suspended. We are currently working on a way to automatically remove such users with non valid e-mails from the ROMS majordomo list. User will not longer be able to login to the web site or bulletin boards.

We also appreciate any information about your publications using ROMS.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Hernan G. Arango
arango@imcs.rutgers.edu