How do you deal with new members

[vonsteiner]

One of the new features on phpBB 3.0.6 is the ability to put new user in a new users group which then allows you to set restrictions such as post approval etc.

What do you for new members on your forum?

At moment new users must ativate their account via email and then have their 1st 2 posts approved.

 

[David]

I would straightaway leave a forum if the owner set posts moderation for 1 or 2 posts. Its annoying and can reduce your activity by quite a number. You can keep user activation, but I would remove post moderation. If you are that worried for spam, employ moderators to oversee the new members' posts.

 

[vonsteiner]

I would straightaway leave a forum if the owner set posts moderation for 1 or 2 posts. Its annoying and can reduce your activity by quite a number. You can keep user activation, but I would remove post moderation. If you are that worried for spam, employ moderators to oversee the new members' posts.

Cheers for the tip I will remove the Moderation.

 

[David]

Maybe I should give a better reason now.

Having the post approval/moderation means members have to wait for their posts to be displayed (der...) but that also means a break in discussion (if you have a long discussion going, they may want to make a valid comment + a question, but then someone with no post moderation will then cut in and make a comment, thus ruining the flow of discussion).

Also, just the wait is quite useless for new members as they are just sitting there, and what if the admin doesn't come on for a few hours. That just would make the member leave as they can't even make a comment, introduction etc.

 

[vonsteiner]

Maybe I should give a better reason now.

Having the post approval/moderation means members have to wait for their posts to be displayed (der...) but that also means a break in discussion (if you have a long discussion going, they may want to make a valid comment + a question, but then someone with no post moderation will then cut in and make a comment, thus ruining the flow of discussion).

Also, just the wait is quite useless for new members as they are just sitting there, and what if the admin doesn't come on for a few hours. That just would make the member leave as they can't even make a comment, introduction etc.

I see your reasoning, I never looked at it like that, I added for spam protection.

 

[fantanoice]

If your worried about spam, you could always just restrict posting links for the first 1-5 posts. That should get rid of most spambots and anybody who simply joined to plug their link.

Most discussions don't require links (though some do), so I doubt that would turn away many people.

 

[vonsteiner]

If your worried about spam, you could always just restrict posting links for the first 1-5 posts. That should get rid of most spambots and anybody who simply joined to plug their link.

Most discussions don't require links (though some do), so I doubt that would turn away many people.

Not thought about that, will give it a go, cheers.

 

[Cosmic]

Once I had a lot of trouble with spambots on a forum I was an assistant administrator on. Then all I did was add a new field to profiles which had to be filled out on registration and which's default value was invalid. The amount of spambots dropped by a lot. I can only assume that it worked very well. You can make the field related to your forum or just "are you a spambot". Unsure what members usually think of it, but it works wonderfully.

Also another alternative is to impose image verification ion the first two posts, as I think that's a feature too. Never tried it though. I do think most of these spammers are actually robots, so it's probably best to find methods for stopping those.

 

[Callum93]

Don't treat them in particularly differently, I just try to make them welcome into the community.

 

[Nebulous]

I would straightaway leave a forum if the owner set posts moderation for 1 or 2 posts.

I wouldnt, I'd probably figure they were having a problem with spam bots or something.. Ive seen it before on forums.

 

[David]

Nah, its because I decided to help a few newer forums, with 0,1,2 posts in each section, so I registered, made an introduction, and what do you know, there was post moderation.

 

[Fergal]

I generally require members to have made 2 posts before they can post a link or an image. This helps deter some spammers, as their main aim is to post a link. My business forum had a problem in the past, with porn spam. Adding the image and link restriction, thankfully brought this to an immediate halt.

Requiring email verification can also keep some of the spammers out.

We don't restrict new members in any other way.