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New users will only be able to post in existing topics


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Please add a descriptive message instead of just "you dont have permission to...". Even googling did not help me to find the reason for not being able to create a new thread. I found this post by chance!

 

Please add this information in the Help or Rules page.

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Please add a descriptive message instead of just "you dont have permission to...". Even googling did not help me to find the reason for not being able to create a new thread. I found this post by chance!

 

Please add this information in the Help or Rules page.

 

I agree, I was a little confused by the message. But I found this post and I think it's a good idea, it forces you to do some research before you post. It prevented me from posting a 'Where the he** do I start?' thread in the Snow Leopard forum :D

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I agree. I saw the nice red warning when I joined, but other may not have for whatever reason.

 

The error message that you get if you didn't read the new rule (or forgot that it applied) is far too generic. It needs to give a reason.

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I agree with the reasons behind this action, but I can't but say that this prevents new members to be part of the InsanelyMac community.

 

If nothing can really be done to avoid this (questionnaires to be filled, or other similar stuff, as stated in previous suggestions in this thread), it'd be really nice to have at least the reasons stated in the error message. And maybe allow long-time users (read: lurkers - I suppose they aren't much of a problem, they don't really spam the forum, if they've been registered for several months without writing 5 posts yet) to create topics.

 

I've been registered for over 4 years (good old OSX86 Tiger deadmoo times) and I wanted to post some question about troubles I got by trying an upgrade of my old Tiger hackint0sh to SL, but I noticed I cannot create a new thread. It took quite a bt to find this thread (I've been checking the global forum rules, and there's nothing in there about this - it'd be a nice place to put it in, since that page can be reached from wherever you are on the forums - as well as looking for semi-hidden messages in the board index, still without success). If it's shown in the registration page, it doesn't really help the old users with low postcount, does it?

 

I hope the critics here made will be of help to improve the forum situation.

 

~Syao

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i think this solution is not very good. i just registered and was left without any clue, why i could not start a new topic. Just add this to the error message:

"Sorry, you do not have permission to start a topic in this forum" + New users require a minimum of 5 posts until they can start a new topic.

 

This would be one solution. I just wonder how this affects the forum. I would guess, that people just start making a lot of dull posts just to get to the 5 minimum, as most new users will be newbies.

 

Maybe you should use openid or facebook connect or something like that to validate users and minimize spam.

 

I don't see this working and also it is pretty user unfriendly like it is now.

 

One more idea:

 

create a newbie forum inside the other forums, where newbies have to post a few messages (2-3) before they can post in other forums. this keeps them from posting just to achieve the five post limit.

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As a new user I was surprised not to be able to start a thread. The one thing I notice where threads that are very bloated where it was difficult to find the information I needed.

 

Along with the other effect of thread jacking and irrelevant information I'd suggest find another way to deal with spam and excess topics on the same subject!

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The biggest problem is simply getting the message across to new users not to post until they have something to say. When we get topics like: "please help me put mac on pc" on the one hand, and people who can't even spell "kext" giving advice within 24 hours of joining, you *know* they have neither read the rules they agreed to on registering (this restriction is marked out there in red), nor done the necessary amount of searching and researching before making a first post.

 

"Read til your eyes bleed" has always been the advice for beginners.. Posting a new topic expecting people to help *just you* rather than reading the information already available until you understand what to do is the disease this modification is attempting to cure.

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IMHO there should be a section were the new users can post freely, while for posting in the rest of the forum one would need to do an on-line test with basic questions about OSX (like people at projectOS X forum did). In this way newbie's post will be easier to moderate 'cos they will be in one section of the forum only, and also may ensure the users able to post in the other sections will have to learn the basic forehand

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When we are talking about the new 5 post rule i thought after seeing a user bring a lot of dead treads to life (5 to be true) with useless comments... i mean why write in a tread from 2009 and only say nice one m8... it can only be because he want to get the 5 posts, and in that sake mess with my browsing of the view new posts list... i know it is not that bad for me but i just feel it is something there might be a lot of here...

I feel also more for a newbee room, where they can go mad and then to be let in the other rooms give them a test. It will not make it feel more like a exclusive club then the dev forum is now... in my book it will just make it look more like the site want to get usefull infomation and not 5000 posts about lets say 3470 mobility cards just because it is more easy to make a new post then it is to search.

 

But that is my 2 cents.

 

(The user i mean: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showuser=585080 )

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When we are talking about the new 5 post rule i thought after seeing a user bring a lot of dead treads to life (5 to be true) with useless comments... i mean why write in a tread from 2009 and only say nice one m8... it can only be because he want to get the 5 posts, and in that sake mess with my browsing of the view new posts list... i know it is not that bad for me but i just feel it is something there might be a lot of here...

I feel also more for a newbee room, where they can go mad and then to be let in the other rooms give them a test. It will not make it feel more like a exclusive club then the dev forum is now... in my book it will just make it look more like the site want to get usefull infomation and not 5000 posts about lets say 3470 mobility cards just because it is more easy to make a new post then it is to search.

 

But that is my 2 cents.

 

(The user i mean: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showuser=585080 )

I completely agree.

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== EDIT ==

Ah well nevermind about the issue. I've managed to have more than 5 posts now by replying to others. Thanks anyway!

 

OK, we've just refined the implementation of this so that users with less than 5 posts but have been registered since January 2009 or earlier will be able to Create New Topics - this accounts for lurkers who don't post often and mainly read.

Hello there, I can't create a new topic and I've been registered since July 2006. I was trying to post in Buying Advices about a new hack I'll be building and got the permission error thing and I thought my account was banned because I only read and rarely post! Then I found this, so the question is: Am I qualified to create new topics?

 

Thanks.

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This would be one solution. I just wonder how this affects the forum. I would guess, that people just start making a lot of dull posts just to get to the 5 minimum, as most new users will be newbies.

 

But instead, it would be to acquire a lot of experience, before opening a topic, and urge users to read up first, preventing thousands of unnecessary topics. Intervene in the case to reach 5 posts is a shortcut of the fruits of "cunning" of people (I thought it was an Italian prerogative)

 

Giorgio

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Well i do fully understand that it is implemented to keep spam bots away, but as i did point out before, there is allready one user that did make 5 posts in old treads (Dead for around 1 year) with comments that are useless just to get his 5 posts.

 

i did even find one hijacking another tread today because he could not make a new tread. He was a new user with one post only. So i still like the plan with all users can read but you need to show you have basic knolage before you can post and that is not something a 5 post rule can do.

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Can I suggest this to still be done, I had the same issue but until I found this thread I was stumped.

 

Cheers

 

Ok, this explains things... might want to change the error message from "You do not have permission.... " to something that informs new users of such...

 

 

Just my 2p.

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I have to confess that it is kind of difficult to find five constructive things to say as a new user - I have a small software problem that I'd ideally like to start a topic about but I'm having to either wait until I've been able to be of use elsewhere, or alternatively post useless comments until I reach the appropriate post count.

 

Do you think it could be reduced to three posts? That's still enough to filter out those registering just to post one question and never return, but it does cut down the amount of junk just to boost post count by 40%.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Like others, it's not obvious about this new policy...as I had registered before new policy, it was not obvious from error message as to why I couldn't make a new topic...puzzled, I sent message to admin...who has not responded...luckily, I found this thread and figured out why I couldn't post...

 

Would be great if error message explained policy...

 

Thanks!

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  • 4 weeks later...

This requirement for five posts in existing threads is rather bizarre, but I guess different people have different ideas.

 

Almost two decade old list management software, LISTSERV, solved this problem in a scalable way long, long ago. New users are moderated ("on review") until they have posted some N times. While on review, their posts flow by a moderator before they go public. Everyone else posts directly to the public. Only extremely dedicated spammers bother posting on topic, relevant posts a few times to make it to direct posts. Anyone, spammers or trouble makers, going off the rails is put back on review. The review queue is routed to a team of moderators, round robin, if necessary to handle the load. It is really sad to see modern forum software that promotes garbage posts in existing threads instead of directly addressing the root of the problem.

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This requirement for five posts in existing threads is rather bizarre, but I guess different people have different ideas.

 

Almost two decade old list management software, LISTSERV, solved this problem in a scalable way long, long ago. New users are moderated ("on review") until they have posted some N times. While on review, their posts flow by a moderator before they go public. Everyone else posts directly to the public. Only extremely dedicated spammers bother posting on topic, relevant posts a few times to make it to direct posts. Anyone, spammers or trouble makers, going off the rails is put back on review. The review queue is routed to a team of moderators, round robin, if necessary to handle the load. It is really sad to see modern forum software that promotes garbage posts in existing threads instead of directly addressing the root of the problem.

Thanks for your input! While this hasn't worked as intended and it is under review right now, we are at a loss of possible solutions. The root of the problem (and also the motivation for implementing this) was being unable to cope with the relatively small group of active moderators. The solution you presented has definitely been on our radar, it just faces the same problem as having no system in place. We won't be able to keep up with the new content as fast as necessary. Hopefully we will be able to get an efficient system in place in the near future to make it easy for everyone. If anyone has any possible suggestions then we'd be more than glad to include them in our future changes pool.

Thanks,

iPoco

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  • 2 weeks later...

aw man seriously? ive been trying to make a topic but i couldnt, i joined this forum to help people install Snowleopard on their dell laitude e6500 succesfully. and i cant even do that lol... cant i have permission or something to start one? because all the existing ones suck, and many users cant achieve a almost perfect install with the guides .

 

some one help please.

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  • 3 weeks later...
aw man seriously? ive been trying to make a topic but i couldnt, i joined this forum to help people install Snowleopard on their dell laitude e6500 succesfully. and i cant even do that lol... cant i have permission or something to start one? because all the existing ones suck, and many users cant achieve a almost perfect install with the guides .

 

some one help please.

 

Hi DhRuV94,

 

Welcome to this fantastic site,

Why don't you search all topics to do with your hardware write a short post to let people know

that you will shortly write a new guide and post for their type hardware. And or help a couple of people out (like this). Before you know you'll have the min required post's for you to start your new topic. Sorry to have to state obvious but a quick read of forum rules and you would of figured

this out...

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