Anyone able to register on the altLinux forum?

This forum is Russian only without any English characters but it seems they accept questions in English, too. The problem is I'm unable to register on this forum. It's always the same error and told me to contact the administrator. If it's an English site then it's no problem. But it's Russian and I can't even find where to contact the administrator of that forum.

Various online translation services can translate whole web pages.
I'm sure you can find the admin's email address on there, and they probably will respond to an english request.

Well, ALTLinux forum is based on Simple Machines, so it follows a fairly standard registration procedure. If you still find it difficult, you can register via OpenID.

They require arithmetic CAPTCHA though. Particularly of note, they use colon (:) as division sign. From Wikipedia:

In some non-English-speaking countries, a colon is used to denote division

Colon is the closest ASCII to ÷

Originally Posted by shruggy Well, ALTLinux forum is based on Simple Machines, so it follows a fairly standard registration procedure. If you still find it difficult, you can register via OpenID. They require arithmetic CAPTCHA though. Particularly of note, they use colon (:) as division sign. From Wikipedia:

Originally Posted by smallpond Colon is the closest ASCII to ÷

I have no problem with the questions. I answered them right. Instead of a successful registration the forum told me there is some errors and I should contact the administrator. This means I did everything right, the problem is of the forum itself.

Originally Posted by ondoho Various online translation services can translate whole web pages. I'm sure you can find the admin's email address on there, and they probably will respond to an english request.

I did use Google Translate but I can't find the admin's email. It seems the forum software is in the process of being upgraded. I think I should try registering later.

Originally Posted by altPOCA I can't find the admin's email.

I'd suggest writing an email to cas (Andrey Cherepanov) then.

Might be your ip has been banned or other prior user name or password creation issue or character keymap issue.
Contact the Russian Embassy (no, don't do that)

Originally Posted by jefro Might be your ip has been banned or other prior user name or password creation issue or character keymap issue. Contact the Russian Embassy (no, don't do that)

The account was not created. I could start registering again using the same account name. This will resulting in error if the account was already registered. I think you are right. The IP address of my country being banned from many online services. I don't know why. I personally do nothing wrong.

Originally Posted by smallpond Colon is the closest ASCII to ÷

That can't really be the reason.
I learned in school to use a simple colon - in the 70s and 80s. Some countries have "always" used it to denote division.

Nothing to do with ASCII - the Wikipedia article Shruggy linked contains the origin:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia This notation was introduced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his 1684 Acta eruditorum. Leibniz disliked having separate symbols for ratio and division. However, in English usage the colon is restricted to expressing the related concept of ratios.

(From a brief scanning of the source ("A history of mathematical notations"), it seems the use of "a÷b" and "a:b" both derive from wanting a single-line notation for division instead of the traditional multi-line version.)


Anyway, returning from that interesting aside...

Originally Posted by altPOCA The IP address of my country being banned from many online services. I don't know why. I personally do nothing wrong.

ISPs often share IP addresses amongst their customers - so someone else could have been causing trouble. Or it could be a country-level block (which some websites do when an influx of requests from a single country cause problems).

You might be able to use Tor to get around this (though some forums block registration by that too), or find a proxy/VPN so your request comes from another country. (You might only need to do this for registration, and can use your regular connection once the account is created.)

Or, as suggested, email an admin and perhaps they can either temporarily whitelist your IP address and/or create the account on your behalf.

I will try registering using a VPN service.

Register using a VPN service doesn't help. I still think it's the forum software's problem. I will try register again in the future. Thanks everyone for helps.