To combat spammers: restrictions applied to new members of the forum

[Rafiki]

Hello everybody!

("Hi Rafiki!")

As you may or may not have seen, we have been seeing an increase in spammer activity targeting these forums for some time now, and it has reached a point where we need to enact some measures to deal with it better.

Therefore, the following restrictions are applied to new members of these forums:

• Not allowed to use the PM system
• Not allowed to use the email-to-others system
• Not allowed to set a signature for themselves
• Not allowed to edit profile info
• Not allowed to post polls
• Not allowed to post visitor messages (on people's profile pages)
• No user picture album
• Not allowed to put links in their posts (e.g. URLs for external sites)

These restrictions are lifted as soon as a new member satisfies *both* of the following:

• Has been a registered user for at least 2 days
• Has a postcount of 5 or more

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause for new members, but hope that the decrease in spam will more than make up for it

[lodilefty]

("Hi Rafiki!")

Hi yourself!

Good rules

[Jim-NC]

Actually, it is kinda sad it has come to this.

[oldspec4]

Unfortunately the spamming/hacking is hitting many of the other wargaming sites also.

[Rafiki]

It's how things are these days, I'm afraid.

My hope is that this will reduce the amount of spam, especially the "hidden" spam, sent in PMs and via the e-mail interface. We'll still see spam with the above restrictions applied, but now it will have to be in the open, where it is easily discovered and dealt with

[halfmanhalfsquidman]

Have these requirments been upped at all? I should qualify for having the restrictions being lifted (Member for 4 days and 11 posts) but I am still unable to send PMs or edit my profile.

[Oldman]

Quite a tough rule (post count) for many users. It usually takes at least several months for me to make 10 relevant posts for the obvious reasons:
- I'm a newcommer and has nothing important to say yet;
- Majority of "newbie" questions are answered already somewhere;
- There is a wealth of interesting posts (AAR's, etc) to read through, which are too old to comment on;
- I'm lurker by nature;
- Neither of the forum languages is my native - it is so much more complicated to write those relevant posts.

So it's a pity you've had to implement those rules. I"ll have to stick to Athena for quite a while...

And I ques I should have made at least 5 posts of this one

[Pocus]

I got your message on the support line Oldman, so as you are answering here, I won't do it in Support. And you can reply to this one

It seems tough, but usually, people who are new to a forum don't need to send private messages to others people. When they do that, 95% of the time it is because they are spammers or bots. 5% of the time it is people like you who have a legit reason to do so (saying hello to an old acquaintance, etc.). Sorry for being a collateral damage of the endless spammers vs forum war.

[Oldman]

I've managed to miss this thread before sending mail on support line - sorry for that and thank you for an answer.
By the way, this forum is a bit specific in regard of PM - those are heavily used to find a PBEM opponent.

[Generalisimo]

I've managed to miss this thread before sending mail on support line - sorry for that and thank you for an answer.
By the way, this forum is a bit specific in regard of PM - those are heavily used to find a PBEM opponent.

Yu have an entire subforum just for that purpose:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=88

[Jim-NC]

True, but most of the time, one or the other parties says "send me a PM with your details" or something similar. That is where the trouble lies.

[Generalisimo]

True, but most of the time, one or the other parties says "send me a PM with your details" or something similar. That is where the trouble lies.

Change "send a PM" with "send an email" and problem solved.
You can easilly set up a new account on Gmail to do PBEM exchanges...

Like Pocus have said before, this is part of the collateral damage of the battle against spammers... sorry guys.

[Gray_Lensman]

Have these requirments been upped at all? I should qualify for having the restrictions being lifted (Member for 4 days and 11 posts) but I am still unable to send PMs or edit my profile.

Rafiki will have to look into this... It could be that things got a little messy since the site had to move to a new server shortly (almost immediately) after these new rules were implemented.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Anazagar]

I've created an account at this forum bout a week ago and I still can't send pm's plus I can't acess most of the User CP functions (like edit avatar or edit your details)

[arsan]

I've created an account at this forum bout a week ago and I still can't send pm's plus I can't acess most of the User CP functions (like edit avatar or edit your details)

You need to post 10 times to have everything enabled

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Ben Waterhouse]

Fair enough!

[Yee Haa]

Hello everybody!

("Hi Rafiki!")

As you may or may not have seen, we have been seeing an increase in spammer activity targeting these forums for some time now, and it has reached a point where we need to enact some measures to deal with it better.

Therefore, the following restrictions are applied to new members of these forums:

• Not allowed to use the PM system
• Not allowed to use the email-to-others system
• Not allowed to set a signature for themselves
• Not allowed to edit profile info
• Not allowed to post polls
• Not allowed to post visitor messages (on people's profile pages)
• No user picture album

These restrictions are lifted as soon as a new member satisfies *both* of the following:

• Has been a registered user for at least 3 days
• Has a postcount of 10 or more

We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause for new members, but hope that the decrease in spam will more than make up for it

I understand the need but I have never used a forum before and half the messages, correction; most of the messages I have a comment or question or reply for seem to be posted in 2008 or a long time ago! How does this work? If I comment on post from 9months ago will the original poster be informed? I wnt to get to DIXICRAT's Basic Training for AACW Newcomers but cant, would I get into trouble if I just posted ten posts here? Yee Haa

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Rafiki]

Nice work with the reposting, Gray. Thanks

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Rafiki]

Like this you mean?

The AGEOD Forums

Click "quote" to see how the BBcode is

[Citizen X]

The drawback is, as has been mentioned, that new registrants need to post ten times, no matter if they have something to say or not.
Like in posts like this.
Anyway, if this is your solution I shall not complain. Might need to post crap though to get my restrictions lifted.

(Burn notice after reading) ^^

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Montana Brigade]

Hey all

Came on board about 2 weeks ago so much to learn so little time. I'll keep marching along

[tagwyn]

Arne: I have been in hospital for 8 days with heart problems!! now back home. Is RUS now fit to order? t

[Jim-NC]

Hey all

Came on board about 2 weeks ago so much to learn so little time. I'll keep marching along

Welcome to the forums. May your time here be beneficial to you and us.

[Wallace]

So hello everyone, look forward to being overwhelmed for awhile but it looks like alot of FUN.

[Wallace]

I've been reading and printing all different areas for newbe's to get a grip on this challenging game, printing to have reading material when I'm not at the computer. I did read a post about the tutorials having small font size which was hard for me also; for somebodys info for future reference in programing this as a obstacle for some players. This is my first attempt at a game of this magnitude pretty daunting but the American Civil War is a Passion of mine and this game seemed to fit the bill for me.