Some mysteries of the forum

[Tom]

Hi

I would really like some arcane mysteries of this forum unlocked. :shock:

When I try to appear as a guest in English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms, I simply cannot. My computer asks me to log in (register). Apparently others can, for example:

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic18656.html

and

http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic654.html

Once Mister Micawber appeared as a guest under the name Mister Micawber; I am simply baffled how!

Tom

[Torsten]

Hi Tom,

Nothing clandestine about the forum at all.

When we started our forum it was open for anyone to post messages. As the amount of spam continually increased, we decided to switch to "registered". However, we sometimes receive interesting contributions from website users via email and we post them on the forum too. Since those messages stem from people have not registered on our forum, we switch the forum to "public" for a minute so we can post as guests. After that we close the forum again.

Hope this makes sense.
Regards,
Torsten

TOEFL listening discussions: How is the young woman financing her education?

[Tom]

Thank you, Torsten

And what about this one?

[Torsten]

That's very simple, Tom. When the forum is being operated in "public" mode, anyone can post messages. So Charles posted his message as a guest and typed his nickname in the appropriate field (which is optional when the forum is public).

TOEFL listening discussions: What will the secretary do next?

[Tom]

[Torsten]

Well, any forum username can be used only once.

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a professor and her student