Carol,

I don't have any experience with Mail Chimp but my guess is, the WP "unblock" box is only going to affect the signups that take place through the WordPress system where visitors can register at your site. It shouldn't affect any other additional email signups that you get via Mail Chimp, aWeber, etc. You should end up with two separate email lists.

Steve

As Steve said, they should be two separate systems. Turning off "Anyone Can Register" shouldn't cause you any problems.

I do a lot of work with Wordpress. I've noticed the same issue with "registrations". I actually think they're spammers of some sort. There's no other explanation for it. Normal users would never go through a back door.

There's two WP plugins I would look at. The first is called "Better WP Security". It will harden your Wordpress site against attacks. I see those fake backdoor registrations as a form of attack.

To me, someone's sniffing around looking for unlocked doors. If they're doing fake registrations, what else are they trying to pry into? If you've got a site with any PR at all this is a concern. If it happened to Neville it can happen to anyone.

Second, take a look at the Gravity Forms plugin. They have an option that makes MailChimp integration dead easy. I LOVE Gravity Forms and use it religiously for all the sites I put up! To me it's the absolute easiest way to create any form. They have lots of options for processing the data once the user hits submit. It costs some money but is well worth it.

(No, I'm not affiliated with either plugin)

I hope that helps! :-).

Update: I have news!

Ever since I closed the backdoor, people are subscribing through the front door. Yipppee.

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