Hey Gav and Other mods!!
It seems to be a bit of an issue lately with newbies coming on and advertising or spambots posting!!
Had a quick look at smf manual and it appears that post approval is in the core for SMF 2. This would only need to be done for the first 10 or so posts to see that the member is legit!!
Is this something we can activate?? I understand its a bit extra workload, I for one would be happy to contribute time in approving posts.
Cheers,
Ben
Hi Ben,
Yes spam is a major PITA and I've been deleting many new accounts daily. I have been a bit slack with updates lately. So first step when I get some spare time is to backup the database and then update the forum to the latest version.
Can this be applied to the classified section so ppl don't come on just to sell their stuff?
Most forums have this sort of system and it forces people to contribute.
Possibly I'll have to look in the settings but see my reply below.
IMO, this is one of those catch-22 situations. Presumably AusZCar forums would like to welcome all genuine newbies to the forums. But how do you know who the genuine newbies are? Post Approval may well discourage newbies from posting or joining at all.
Yes I agree I want to reduce the barriers to entry in the club not increase them. The forum software is not exactly well set up for new registration workflow, in that it could have say a walk through wizard type intro to introduce people to the club. Right now that's not possible, but in future it may be.
with you there dazda!! I really think this karma is over the top... i think maybe only a pos karma system instead!!
Agree Karma was an experiment and still is. I am thinking of disabling negative karma and only allowing positive. There is no native way to do this via the forum software. So it would need to be a javascript solution. Savvy users (i.e people who understand javascript like you Benny) would probably work out ways to still do a negative karma, but it should stop the majority of users.
If someone wants to sell their car, what else can they contribute? They're (usually) getting out of zeds, not into them. Sure they probably won't donate to the site, but if a regular gets a bargain/something they need, then surely that's a good thing.
When someone posts a first post sale thread, they get abused and -karma'd - that will turn them off hanging around and contributing. I think we need to be more welcoming.
You could make the for sale/wanted forums restricted to people with >10 posts/1 month membership or something, but as I said, I like being offered stuff for sale.
I'm starting to agree that we should allow anyone to post in the classifieds provided it's Zcar related or at least Datsun / Nissan. The nature of the internet is that everyone assumes everything is free. I can't change that mindset, it used to annoy me when I was paying for hosting that people who join up to flog their stuff and then take off and never be seen again (no contribution back to the site). However now that I have donations coming in and some small amount of revenue from Adsense / Advertising I'm less concerned with this. I may take a look at the sticky posts and amend them.
FWIW I get people emailing me asking about selling off Zeds all the time. Usually it's another 280zx (sorry ZX members but there are just so many 2+2 280zx's that are in poor shape) that is a basket case, but every so often it's a rare 240z / 260z in original condition and the owner wants a good home. I would rather our members get first dibs on such cars than EvilBay.
i agree with you guys... just getting sick of it... either we do the post moderation or people get over it!!
The spam is 1 thing we can try and handle that by installing some modules to prevent spam sign up's I need to look into it, but right now we just have to delete the users.
The freeloaders I think we just need to accept and ignore. For the most part you might pick up a bargain.
We've got to ask the question - would we rather that we had the occasional 'bot or first post seller, or that we drove away some 20 year old kid who's just got their first Z (likely full of rust and needing every bit of advice that anyone could give) and might be a lifelong member of this club. My call is its not worth missing out on the chance of a really solid member just to avoid the occasional abuser ... but that's just my opinion.
How about the mods just have a set reply to first time poster/sellers that says pretty much what the ad hoc posts have been saying - this is a community, and we prefer that people contribute to it rather than just treating it as another eBay or classified site.
I am (and have been) a member of a bunch of different forums like this. This has been the best in terms of people being really nice and super helpful - but also the worst in terms of just being savaged by people for perfectly innocent posts. So how about we all just think of every new forum member as the potential life member ... and try and avoid their first post being their last!!
My 10c worth ....
R.
Agree, we have to realise that whilst we understand lots about these cars, many come here with no prior knowledge of cars just a passion. I think we need to all be a bit more tolerant to some of their questions and we can guide them to the search function (but that's not the best usability wise) but sometimes we just have to be tolerant and willing to grit out teeth and be nice. I think for the most part we do well, but I don't like seeing negative karma on someones first post. So I'll see what I can do about the karma thing.
It is annoying that we have to deal with some of the crap that gets posted, but if we had a locked down forum from the start I'm sure our community would not have grown the way it has. We have to take the good with the bad I guess, but we can try and minimise the bad.
