Limit New Member Posting

[Collabora]

Its a real turnoff to come to this forum, click on New Posts and see a new Member filling the list with their own posts (usually useless fluff, many times reviving zombie threads) to pump up their post count.

I suggest we limit new members to two posts per day until a certain number is reached

 

[Artashes]

Its a real turnoff to come to this forum, click on New Posts and see a new Member filling the list with their own posts (usually useless fluff, many times reviving zombie threads) to pump up their post count.

I suggest we limit new members to two posts per day until a certain number is reached

It is indeed an occasional problem. Every time I login, I screen through every single new post. New members that actively try to get their post count off the ground, will usually have their fluff posts deleted, if those are found. In some cases, we even issue infractions. It is possible you get to see those posts before they are removed.

However, I love the idea of limiting per day posting for new members as well. If you know how to do this, please post or link to where it is explained. If not, I will try to look into how I can set it up.

Mucho gracias for your feedback. :thumbup:

 

[easyhostmedia]

It is indeed an occasional problem. Every time I login, I screen through every single new post. New members that actively try to get their post count off the ground, will usually have their fluff posts deleted, if those are found. In some cases, we even issue infractions. It is possible you get to see those posts before they are removed.

However, I love the idea of limiting per day posting for new members as well. If you know how to do this, please post or link to where it is explained. If not, I will try to look into how I can set it up.

Mucho gracias for your feedback. :thumbup:

HI Art.

i found this http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131014

 

[Avuntia]

I think this is a good idea, however i would limit it to like 5 - 8 a day at the beginning (so people dont get turned off), Limiting something could be really risk, i sometimes wish there were more posts on a daily basis because most things on this forum are really interesting, hopefully the community will react positively.

 

[Artashes]

HI Art.

i found this http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=131014

Not quite for our version of software, but on the right track. Thank you.

I think this is a good idea, however i would limit it to like 5 - 8 a day at the beginning (so people dont get turned off), Limiting something could be really risk, i sometimes wish there were more posts on a daily basis because most things on this forum are really interesting, hopefully the community will react positively.

The limit will not be 2 posts per day, but it won't be 8 per day either. We'll meet somewhere in the middle.

 

[SenseiSteve]

While I understand the reasoning for limits for specific users, when I first joined HD, I was averaging around 8 threads/posts per day. If I find discussions that interest me, I may post more than eight, especially if there's a lot of activity on the thread. Telling me I can only post 6 times in 24 hours is just going to send me to another forum.

 

[easyhostmedia]

While I understand the reasoning for limits for specific users, when I first joined HD, I was averaging around 8 threads/posts per day. If I find discussions that interest me, I may post more than eight, especially if there's a lot of activity on the thread. Telling me I can only post 6 times in 24 hours is just going to send me to another forum.

Steve, i think the OP is talking about newbies having restricted posting count

 

[Sister]

I think this is a good idea, however i would limit it to like 5 - 8 a day at the beginning (so people dont get turned off), Limiting something could be really risk, i sometimes wish there were more posts on a daily basis because most things on this forum are really interesting, hopefully the community will react positively.

Maybe set it so the number of posts per day new members can make==the number of days they've been a member. On day one they would be limited to a single post. On day two, 2 posts; day three, 3 posts, etc. Abuse could be reduced by transforming the meaning of 'day' into a variable relative to each individual, i.e. if a new member made a post on day one and decided to wait a week until posting again, it would be considered 'day two' upon their return rather than day seven.

This might be a bit too strict, but at least it would give people a good amount of time to gather their thoughts for forthcoming posts rather than pissing 'em all out as rapid stream of one liners in 30 seconds (think before you tweet!).

Telling me I can only post 6 times in 24 hours is...

Yeah, but these limits would be the simultaneous opening of space for anticipation to grow, which would likely increase your desire to return ('anticipation is better than the real thing' as they say). If you were really hungry and were limited to one helping per 3 hours at your favourite buffet, chances are you'd wait out the 3 hours and have a second helping. You'd become hungrier during the wait so the meal would taste much better and feel more rewarding/satisfying.

...just going to send me to another forum.

The risk of losing new people to 'another forum' is pretty low imho. HD is a long-standing forum and easily 'comes in second' to WHT in terms of what else is out there (of course it's much better than WHT in a lot of ways, but that's a different thread).

Either way, I think that emphasizing the reality of limitations at a time when the misleading narrative of 'unlimited disk space and bandwidth' is more rampant than ever is already an interesting enough concept.

 

[SenseiSteve]

When I first found HD, I was actively searching for other forums to join since WHT had been hacked and was down. I did end up registering at over 20 new hosting forums, but found Hosting Discussion to be my favorite. As a newbie to HD at the time (I repeat), I would have focused my participation elsewhere if there were limits on the number of threads or posts. There would have been NO anticipation to grow as mentioned and my desire to return would have been diminished. More rewarding? NOT

 

[romes]

When I first started as a host I went to and registered on just as many forums as steve did. If there were limits of less than 10 a day I probably wouldn't have stayed because I wanted to break the average 10 post count. I don't spam mind you but it would have made me forget about HD. By far HD is my favorite as art is patient and gives you chances while other forums simply give you infractions (wht) or ban you. But, I wouldn't have found this out if I couldn't make the initial ten post. When I first started I was hungry and wanted to post on as many forums as I could and a forum that limited me would have been put in last place while those that didn't would have been my primary focus.

If there is potential for a post limit, let the limit be something high but not too high. Maybe 8 post? This way the person can't spam his way to 10 and has to wait for one more day. Doesn't ruin the experience and makes it harder to post an ad if they do decide to spam. Gives art time to catch them on day one before they post spam all over the forum just to post the ad. By day two, the spam would have been removed and the person would have been warned without ever having his ad shown.

Not sure if my ramblings made any sense

 

[Artashes]

Merry Christmas, everyone.

First of all, thank you all for providing your feedback. All your voices have always been very important. I can relate to both sides of the argument: those who are annoyed by some occasional newbie flooding the forum with fluff in record time just to get to the minimum post count that allows them to use the marketplace and those who'd get annoyed by the same limitation as it would turn them off if they wanted to post more.

Steve, you joined the community in 2009. It was 4 years ago (or 12 in Internet years). A lot has changed and forums have faced a new reality: they've started to get attacked by spam bots and human spammers like never before. If you look at all the other hosting forums out there, chances are - you will see a lot of spam. I'd think THAT ruins communities, not the initial temporary posting limitations for new members.

In fact, we've always had some sort of limitations. The marketplace restrictions of posting 1 ad per 7 days, the qualification restrictions (25 posts and 14 days of active membership), the registration restrictions to help us fight against spam bots (you don't see them, but we've had them for years), most recently manual verification of new accounts.

Professionally run forums out there are always evolving, even DigitalPoint which I've always thought of as a hub for exactly those type of members. Today they require some kind of validation process (by other established members on top of that) before you can start a thread in the advertising forums. Others have time restrictions on when new members are allowed to start a thread (anywhere on the forum), others have signature restrictions, etc.

The majority of new members join HostingDiscussion to eventually earn their right to advertise their services as well. However, even if they are allowed to post 25 posts in 25 minutes, they still need to wait 14 days for the permissions to allow them to post an ad. Everyone has to wait. But given the trend of some new members who still want to spam through 25 quick posts and then come back in 2 weeks to an account that's ready to go, it ruins the experience for everyone else. And I am big on experience. Most people will rarely have the reason to post more than 10 posts per day, so even if we could spread those 25 posts over a 3-5 day period, the return effect will be a positive one.

 

[SenseiSteve]

Merry Christmas to you Artashes and to everyone else on the forum. May the New Year bring the very best to all of us.

I'm very aware of the the changes in forums since 2009 and have seen my share of forums overrun with spam, and with members who only join to advertise.

Regardless of any changes you make to the rules here, HD will always be on my list of favorite forums to check in on daily, even if I don't post as frequently as I used to.

 

[Sister]

...WHT had been hacked and was down. I did end up registering at over 20 new hosting forums, but found Hosting Discussion to be my favorite. As a newbie to HD at the time (I repeat), I would have focused my participation elsewhere...

This was partially my point. Of the other all purpose web hosting forums out there, none of them really measure up to WHT or HD as far as I'm aware. I sincerely doubt you would have focused your participation elsewhere...

...if there were limits on the number of threads or posts. There would have been NO anticipation to grow as mentioned and my desire to return would have been diminished. More rewarding? NOT

...but I can't argue with ya, SenseiSteve. Was only throwin' some suggestions out there, not the gospel.

 

[Rado_Ch]

I'll try to throw my 2 cents of advice as a somehow novice user.

As many of you, I came across HD during a search for big and reputable hosting related forums. I had a neat list of around 30-35 forums and decided to start only with the major ones. As a starter, the first thing was to find suitable threads to contribute. At first there seemed to be plenty to talk about and I tried to enter discussions that are no more than a month old, so I can be sure there was a chance for the discussion to continue. The first few days worked great and HD was in my top 3 list for sure.

Now, as this is only one of my daily tasks, I had to work on a procedure that was not time-consuming and yet letting me be helpful as I can in the forums I chose. So what I do when I login is first check my subscribed threads, offer some additional responses when possible. After that I go to the New Posts, browse through all topics and choose the ones I think I can be useful in. So what I saw in time is that I found it harder and harder each day to find new, fresh material, where there are actual opinions raised and not just some copy/pastes and one-liners. I just don't feel I can add ANYTHING to such posts and I just leave them be. After a strong start I feel as if now I'm not getting more than a few interesting threads weekly and deliberately limit my posting so I can keep the value and relevance of each post.

Now, a very interesting point that you brought DigitalPoint to the discussion, as this is the example I was about to give. Mind you, this is one forum I initially didn't even try from my list, but later decided to give it a try. As you are much more experienced in the forum field, I see that in the past this forum held absolutely no value to quality posters, but indeed can see a difference now. Sure, there are still many users that do the same copy/pasting exercises. Yeah, I don't quite like their Established Member status that you need to get to post ads or like posts (the requirement is actually Certain Number of Days+Posts+Likes from 3 different Established Members). But at the end of the day I still find a larger number of quality material to comment on. And its not even because the forum is much bigger, with much more sections - I still predominantly use the Hosting, Domains and SEO section that you have here.

So what am I trying to get across? I do like HD, I really do, its still in my top list, but the amount of low-quality fluff posts have to diminished somehow. Would that happen with different rules for newbies? Probably not, the 14 day requirement for Ad posting keeps a big part of this mass away. Most of those users want to get to that part as fast as possible. Having a limited daily post count, even though requiring more consecutive logins, still speeds up the process of getting to Ad Posting point. And that will likely cause a reverse effect. Not aware of the HD internal staff and how busy they are, but opening room for new moderators (even established community members) might tighten the security a little bit. Its a matter of catching those "fluffers" faster and stop their access during their early invasion. More time and effort is required from this plan but I do believe it would be for the best :rolleyes2

Edit: Oh yeah, Merry Christmas to everyone too, hope Santa has brought you many smiles from people you love

 

[Sister]

I do like HD, I really do, its still in my top list, but the amount of low-quality fluff posts have to diminished somehow. Would that happen with different rules for newbies? Probably not, the 14 day requirement for Ad posting keeps a big part of this mass away.

I think this was recently changed to 7 days.

 

[Rado_Ch]

I think this was recently changed to 7 days.

Fully possible, I am not famous for my perfect memory :rolleyes2

Going with the aforementioned idea tho, let's say around 7-8 posts per day for newbies, this would still make the task possible in about 4 days

 

[Artashes]

I think this was recently changed to 7 days.

I think he meant the 14 days of active membership that new members are required, before they are allowed to post in the Marketplace.

So what am I trying to get across? I do like HD, I really do, its still in my top list, but the amount of low-quality fluff posts have to diminished somehow. Would that happen with different rules for newbies? Probably not, the 14 day requirement for Ad posting keeps a big part of this mass away. Most of those users want to get to that part as fast as possible. Having a limited daily post count, even though requiring more consecutive logins, still speeds up the process of getting to Ad Posting point. And that will likely cause a reverse effect. Not aware of the HD internal staff and how busy they are, but opening room for new moderators (even established community members) might tighten the security a little bit. Its a matter of catching those "fluffers" faster and stop their access during their early invasion. More time and effort is required from this plan but I do believe it would be for the best :rolleyes2

Amazing feedback, Radoslav, thank you. Actually, the part in bold type is what I was thinking might be the solution. Currently I am the only moderator on the forum. The fact is, with the limitations and the custom blocks that we've set to work behind the scenes, it has become a lot less problematic to moderate, because the chances of a true spammer getting through are minimal. Sure, if we had multiple moderators, which HD doesn't need at this point (in terms of moderating capacity), we'd probably catch fluffy posts quicker. However, it will not eliminate the problem as some new members will still try to post low quality fluff and you might still notice them first if it is done during the time that you are here.

Our policy has always been to protect the quality of content that is posted on HostingDiscussion, so if we notice one-liner posts that add no new value to a discussion, they are usually removed and infractions issued, especially if that kind of posting is part of user's overall posting behaviour.

But just to clarify: you are against establishing a daily posting limitation for new members until they reach 25 posts, correct?

 

[Artashes]

Going with the aforementioned idea tho, let's say around 7-8 posts per day for newbies, this would still make the task possible in about 4 days

Right, but at least if it happens during your active time on the forum, you won't be faced with 25 new fluff posts, rather only 8.

There is also a natural effect, which is totally mental, is that when you have a scarcity of something (ex: number of posts you are allowed to make), the person automatically starts to value each post more, so without knowing he'd be motivated to put them to good use, improving the contribution in the process. That's my hope anyway.

 

[romes]

For when the time comes and you need a mod, I volunteer!

 

[Julien@HS]

Being brand new on HD (lol), and pretty active on similar forums. I try to reply in new threads in which I have something to share. Maybe it can be seen as getting more posts, but really it's how I browse forums. So if you limit new members posts counts per day, it will maybe weed out active members too.