Hi Everybody,
 

jm24
It did not work the second time.
 
Days of attempting to create new user/ and post messages, and all I get is errors.

 
It would be really helpful if you could tell us what the error(s) you are seeing are or say. The more info you can provide the better.
 

 
I did not want my forum account tied to my store account. Did not understand it would happen by just a couple of clicks and no clear opt out option.  Very unhappy about this demotion of privacy caused by the CW managers. 

 
If you do not want your accounts tied together you can do so by creating two accounts with unique email addresses. 
 

 
Now if the forum gets hacked my store info could be at risk.

 
This is very much not the case. If the forum gets hacked the only information a hacker would get would be what you provided in your profile (which is already public) and your email address. The forum is no longer storing usernames and passwords. The identity mechanism we are now using is a substantial security improvement over what the forum was using before.
 
You can read more about these changes in our announcement post here: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Cakewalk-Single-Sign-On-and-You-m3071249.aspx which might answer some of your questions.
 

Often happens around 6 to 8am GMT. It makes me wonder if a backup job is getting in the way or perhaps spambots are attempting to spam the forums around this time (I remember our black magic guy was active around this time).

 
It's actually an awkward combination of both (not a backup job specifically but some heavy database server activities) that gets worse when the spam bots are trying their hardest. We're aware of the issue though and working to minimize it. I'd love to tell you it'll be fully addressed soon - but realistically its not something that we can quickly fix.

Thanks Willy, good to know and that should allay people's concerns. I think all the media hype about the bank, retailer, and government sites that have been hacked makes people nervous...as it should.
 
As to the spambots, I feel your pain. When I was working with Harmony Central there were periods where the spambots essentially became a denial of service attack. I'd try to log on, not be able to or the site would be slow, then come back half an hour later and see forty billion spam posts littering the place. Well, maybe it was only 40 million.
 

Edited to remove a silly comment.
 
Bob Bone
 

Bflat5
I get an error message when trying to reply to a post a lot. It seems to only happen late night though.

it's happening to me right now, but some threads are ok. It is 7:50 pm, Friday night Tokyo time which is 3:50 am early Friday morning in California

I just created a new "forum" account.
Got the confirmation email, clicked the link.
Was returned to the website. Approved and logged in.
Go to the forum and am not logged in.
I try three times.  Nor error. No log in.
 
I used one of the email addresses I attempted to register with previously. No error.
 
Just no fun.
 
I did send messages to the webmanager the night I tried to create 3 new accounts and none would work.