Suggestion: A way to prevent spam/noob posts

JustSomeName

JustSomeName

New member
Had a suggestion for new members, I've seen this feature on other forums I'm apart of.

My suggestion would be to provide some sort of grace period to new members where they cannot post threads/comments until certain criteria was met, for example:

  • New users cannot post a new thread for the first # days of joining
  • New users cannot post a comment for the first # days of joining
  • New users cannot post a new thread until they've had # of posts
  • etc, etc

These are just suggestions but something like this would force new users to browse the site after they've joined and before they're able to post and hopefully be able to find their answer before they post another "lift/tire suggestion" thread.
 
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I like this idea, maybe a probation period of like a week durring which the user would be instructed every-time he/she logged on to do some research and attempt to educate themselves and read the FAQ stickies regarding their vehicle!
Maybe I dont recall correctly but I dont remember there being any instruction telling me to read the stickies or run searches. I understand that to 90% of us this is self explanatory but it clearly is an issue for many people who are new to this site.
 
it could be useful but a good amount of people have already searched before making their first post. not everyone of course, but some...
 
Too different topics, spammers and noobs.

We have many things in place to prevent spammers, but they don't always work. We have users that are not bots but still register to simply post spam. As you can tell, it's hard to control them as they appear as legitimate members at first. We mostly rely on members reporting such posts and we (mods) get rid of them very quickly. I'll take the liberty to say that spam posts don't stay up for longer than a day. So keep reporting them!

As far as grace period goes, I'm afraid that could have a negative impact, and turn people away. They would register and after realizing that they can't post for say a week would go and ask their question elsewhere.

I realize that a lot of noobs don't do their research before asking questions. In their defense though, we have 10 years worth of posts here, it could be a bit overwhelming. And the last thing we want is to turn people intimidated by the sheer size of knowledge here away from joining and contributing to the community.

Just my 2 cents. Thoughts?
 
I understand the deal about the new members asking silly questions that can be solved with a simple search and there is no way to get rid of that. That is an issue on ALL forums. It's a part of the deal here and I don't really see a huge problem with that. We in the classic section usually point them in the right direction and nudge them to search next time.

As for the spam issues, I don't think that we need a week grace period. I think if we had a 24hr grace period then that would cut most of the spam and not deter and potential members. A simple e-mail telling the member that their membership has been approved would suffice and would bring them back. I would think that the spammers would avoid a forum if they realized that they had to wait a day or so before they can re-visit the same forum. I think that most of the spammers are looking for a quick hit on a forum knowing that their spam wouldn't last long and they don't care to put forth too much effort in posting it.

If anything, I think that a trial period would be worth while. We could figure out on average how many members per month join this forum and see if there is a significant decrease in new members over a 30 day period.
 
What percentage of new users are here because they're searching for help with an issue and need to post right now? What percentage of those users will bother signing up and waiting 24 hours to post instead of wandering away to some other forum?
 
KidVermicious said:
What percentage of new users are here because they're searching for help with an issue and need to post right now? What percentage of those users will bother signing up and waiting 24 hours to post instead of wandering away to some other forum?
Click to expand...

That's a good point. That's why I suggested to do a trial period. We can find out how many guys signed up over the last year with a 30 day average then compare it to how many new members we have in the next 30 days after we try this 24hr period.
 
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