Making Registration and Set-up Less of a Pain, For Everyone!

[gomer]

Using our current system we get zero per day.The old way with less then half the current members was less then one hundred a day. One of the issues was also the content of some of these as the wording and links were XXX rated and were often being put on the site while we were all asleep.Then the first mod up in the morning would be in a mad rush to delete these before work. Our current system stops this in its tracks. How ever is it ideal maybe not there are a few other ways that can work aswell.I am sure these options will be discussed.

[venetta]

I must say, that I found with getting to my 5 posts didn't take THAT long.

Usually when I am on the forum, there is a moderator or administrator noted as being online, so it was never a massive wait for my posts to be approved.
It's not hard to reach 5 either. You post in the Introduction area, then make a few small comments on other posts and by rights they might all get approved at once anyway!

[jusdeb]

Only have to go to the word game and make up 5 silly words and your in .
If people seriously want to be part of the forum they will not worry about the 5 post rule . Since its start we have not has any stupid / pornographic or innane spams which would more likely put a newbie off the forum than the 5 post rule .
Any new member is warmly greeted by more than a couple of people with questions and a reason to reply thus making 5 posts easy .

Im wondering why we have to be like everyone else anyway ? Any trivial inconveniences are surely over ruled by the friendly people and wealth of knowledge available here .

Just my opinion and pardon my need to speak out about this but Ive been here long enough I think to say the forum rocks the way it is .

[JEWEL]

I didnt have a problem with my first 5 posts - apart that i was apprehensive posting each one for fear of appearing naive ! But thats the beauty of this forum - its a place where people can learn so much more about their passion and hobby from others with so much more experience. I honestly cant imagine why there would be spammers, apart from the fact they obviously have nothing better to do with their time. I think this forum is tops, it has certainly helped me in my times of need.

[Canary]

The way I look at it is if you do not want to wait for 5 posts, that can be completed in a very short period, then you are not serious about joining the forum. Even if you checked back each day, it may take 5 days. If you can't wait 5 days then you aren't going to be very successful with breeding birds.

It seems to be working well, with new members almost every day. Most new members seem to hang around and contribute to the forum.

[VinceS]

ehem, tweet tweet, What a load of Bird Poooooooooop!!!,

Whoops, couldn't help myself, sorry. So, what people are kinda saying is it long ago stopped being about spam protection and has become a right of passage to join the "in" crowd?

Remember I have said, and I mean, that I refuse to complain. But did I find the signing up system a nice process? nope, no way! And a small home truth: the functional realities of how this was ACTUALLY administered in the real world meant in my case I had the bird lock applied to me for 10 posts, not a problem as I totally understand why it was so.

I know, I know, I can hear people saying "oh you're just soooo special". And there will be others saying "wasn't enough, no way - put it back, put it back!"

If we can just leave egos off the table for a minute, and also not hurt anyone's feelings (if there is a way that makes you feel sad / mad / bad and a way that doesn't I meant that way, OK?) fear of change / keeping something bad / stupid because "you" had to do it is an absolutely wanky reason to keep perpetuating the same crap. I of course mean that in a nice way!

It is not an "agree to differ" topic. Di said she's fine to change stuff for the better, now that she (and others I guess, I am still learning what the go is here) have the time to do it. Sam weighed back in with sensible q's about "so what exactly is the real problem here?" which remain unanswered. And then a bunch of noise happened about "what problem?"

Well, let me explain there are four levels of problem solving in life, we all use them and they go like this:

4) Denial "What Problem"
3) Blame "You made me do it"
2) Justification "I only did it because..."
1) Responsibility "I didn't realise when I did that it caused ......."

In life, we should only be operating in 1) or 2), yet it is far more common to experience 3) and 4) - check it out next time you're out there in the real world, it is amazing how common this is when you immediately see it for what it is.

I started this game by saying "mate, when I joined this forum it was a pretty crap deal at a personal experience level" and made a couple of suggestions. For my reward in trying to be helpful I have seen a load of denial and a bit of blame. Not much of "oh of course, we shoulda realised that could be a problem, now that we've got time to scratch ourselves we might get to look at it again soon" Oh no, but Di DID say that, the Adult Response! Gomer did too. So let's just pretend all the other bs didn't happen shall we and chalk it up to experience? Or is anyone here going to seriously say they really did enjoy childbirth in the moment? Or the bloke equivalent experience of that first serious bully that made effing sure you did it his way! All I've got to say is "liar, liar, pants on fire!" , which I think is about the level where the topic has been traveling........

What did Mum used to say - "if you haven't got something good or useful to say then it is time to shut up". I have been pretty good at doing that on this topic so far but whoops, blew my copy book! So I am really hoping people find this good or useful, or mummy might come after me with that bloody stinging feather duster .

[Jayburd]

Look, I joined the forum long before any such rules were in place, so I might be biased, but it seems to me there's a lot of unpleasant stuff being said here. M not saying its untrue, just certainly not pleasant.
Is there a way we can compromise on the matter? Find say instead of five modded posts a simple question such as "which Australian finch is the most colourful? Hint: starts with G" or something. Easily googled. Then maybe like two checked-on posts, just to be safe?
I think there's potential to make this very simple and easy. Just mediating terms.

[spanna]

Vince, obviously you have some experience in this, so those in charge have taken your thoughts on board. But if someone came onto your bike forum and started demanding change after only a handful of posts, how might other users react to this?
Yes, I agree, there are better ways to do things that may get new users "into the click" (pun intended) faster, but as has been said, it really isn't overly difficult as it stands. 5 posts can be made in 5 minutes, moderated, and bam presto you have full access to the forum. It's not about getting into a smaller, more exclusive group at all.

Please, this isn't an attack on you, I do agree with you in theory, just let people decide from themselves instead of labelling everything that isn't your opinion "birdpoop".

Luke

[VinceS]

I agree, it is not helpful if a discussion appears unsavory, regardless of whether it is, and that in itself is a subjective call. If I could anchor my own "running interference" on myself a bit,

In the OP, this is what I was suggesting:

1) new accounts should default to "notify me of replies by default" (no discussion)

2) it's time to try spam prevention via enabling the questions on registration feature (lots of discussion)

3) anyway five posts is not needed for spam protection, one will do (by inference I guess as I was losing posts approved out of sequence)

It was also totally missed that I have seen all ends of this and know there are better solutions. I have been actively involved in many forums because frankly I like to give a bit back and have the skills / aptitude to do so. Most people wouldn't have a clue what the internet looked like in 1986. About then is when I discovered what it was then and used it to help a close mate figure out the right questions to ask his doctor about the crap disease he had and because of that the bottom line is that he got doctors looking for stuff they didn't know and he was able to get treatments that went on to cure him in either a much shorter time than would have otherwise happened, or at all. I have stayed in touch and involved with it ever since and that is where I'm coming from when I chip in with the stuff i do.

Remember we all have our own perspectives and experiences in life and it is very hard to use the written word to convey complex concepts. full stop. But we do want it to work, so let's head in that direction shall we?

[VinceS]

oh, a post while I was bashing at the keyboard. the birdpoop thing was supposed to be a joke (this was obviously "the other way" I meant), wondering if I got the colours right.

And absolutely I and anyone I play with keeps an open mind all the time. As an absolute matter of fact the BEST person to be telling you what to do is someone new seeing it for the first time. IMHO of course!