Method for how to register for the IOCCC?

[lcn2]

An idea: IOCCC registration mailing list model

To register for the IOCCC, we are pondering a mailing list model:

0. Successfully join the IOCCC registration mailing list (while the contest is open)
1. IOCCC judges are notified that someone successfully joined the IOCCC registration mailing list
2. An IOCCC judge sends back to the person who join, instructions on how to submit to the IOCCC

In Step 0, joining the mailing list would involve requesting to join the IOCCC registration list, including the some form of double opt-in and perhaps some form of anti-bot mechanism.

In Step 1, an IOCCC judge would use a tool to receive a notification that someone has successfully joined the IOCCC registration mailing list, but the actual Email address would be obscured so the IOCCC judge does NOT know who is registering.

In Step 2, the IOCCC judge would use a tool to send back via Email to the person, their IOCCC login name (a GUID / version 4 UUID) and an initial password that the person would use to setup their submit server account (that would include forcing them to change their password).

While the IOCCC registration mailing list is a mailing list, there will be no broadcasting. All messages sent to the mailing list would go into a blackhole. Only the act of someone successfully joining the list would be brought to the attention of the IOCCC judges. A IOCCC judge in turn, would use a tool to create an account on the IOCCC submit server (username as a GUID / version 4 UUID PLUS a random initial password) and then send Email back to user with their username and initial password.

An idea: some other IOCCC registration service

Perhaps what is needed is not a mailing list service, but rather some type of registration service? This might involve some web form where someone wants to register for the contest and receives individualized instructions on how to submit to the IOCCC (username as a GUID / version 4 UUID PLUS a random initial password).

What we do NOT want is a simple web form where people type in someone else's Email address in order to try and get us to SPAM someone about instructions on how to upload their IOCCC submissions. So such a web form would need to have some anti-bot / "are you a human" sanity checking at a minimum to help prevent bot spam.

On double opt-in and perhaps some form of anti-bot mechanism

We realize that there is no perfect double opt-in mechanism, not a 100% reliable anti-bot mechanism. All we would want is to slow down someone trying to mess with the registration process.

We put a human (IOCCC judge) into the loop in steps 1 and 2 in order to better catch those bots that might slip thru.

Comments welcome

[lcn2]

One person recommended groups.io.

We were told:

You could set up a mailing list there to have people subscribe to, make it so only the list admins can post to it and have it have people confirm their emails before subscribing.

We will look at that service.

UPDATE 0

The above use of groups.io is an interesting idea .. we presume the we could setup a group and post one general short message explaining the repo (mostly a link to web site info). Members would not be allowed to post to the group. The admins (IOCCC judges) would be notified when someone joined the group.

We presume the notification would allow us (IOCCC judges) to send a private message to the new member (giving them their username and initial password).

Each new IOCCC would have its own group.

This is an interesting idea.

p.s. It looks like this is free and people tell us it is well managed.