mlfarrell

I've had an account since 4 years ago and I need some help. >:-0

what is this "permission denied" bullshit when I try to post to the other sections

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

Read the announcements.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Instructions here: RX8Club.com - Announcements in Forum : New Member Forum

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (3)

The guy appears to have been a member since 08 and has well more than the required number of posts...why would he be limited?

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

It has to do with the hoops Zoom44 had to go through to get the restriction in place. Everyone belonged to the default group, and he couldn't assign new members to a different group, they get default automatically. So he had to create a new group, try to shift everyone into that, and then place the restriction on the default group. He recognized that there would be a fraction of the members that slipped through the crack and didn't get the group change, and for some of these, the automatic group change wouldn't trigger either.

So he recognizes that he will periodically get contacted by people that need to be manually moved to the un-restricted group.

zoom44

i havent had to move anybody in the longest time now. usually sometime between when they message me and when i get back to them the promotion schedule has caught up to them. it only looks for promotions once an hour. like this OP fellow. this is the first time he's been on since we created the New Member user group. sometime between when he got all annoyed and posted this thread at 9:23pm and when im writing this at 11:49 pm the promotion caught up to him.

of course if RR had read the post in the link through the last note he'd be aware of the possible hour wait and wouldnt have needed to ask

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

As has been pointed out numerous times in the past, everybody always thinks their supposedly great idea to supposedly make things better is so simple & easy. Nothing really changed except creating an inconvenience for new members.

zoom44

actually its working just fine. but thanks for checking in Marc

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

Thats clearly the case, Zoon.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (3)

I did read the link in detail. IT says nothing about previous existing members already exceeding both the time and post count limits being caught up in the issue. Seriously, go back and look.

It says that promotion *just after you have exceeded the time and post threshold* will occur within 1-24 hours, and beyond that a manual request may be required.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

RR, I feel that this part of the announcement covers that case fairly well
Though I could add a comment about "the first time logging in since May of 2013"


Edit: wow, a huge duplication of text in there. Not sure how that happened. Fixing it up.

Edit: updated the announcement text for more clarity there.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (3)

I don't know about here, but I can say for sure that when they did this on rx7club, it did prevent legitimate new members from getting help sometimes.

Surprisingly, a large number of the people that I work for are totally ignorant of rx7/rx8club. Sometimes these people will need a part or service that I don't have available, and I will refer them to look on the forums for those. Then they invariably contact me back and say "I tried to get on that forum you told me about, but I don't see any parts for sale section and it won't let me post anywhere except at the top".

I don't stay on this forum enough to know for sure, but I was on rx7club several hours daily from 2000 through 2008 (about when they implemented the new user group policy) and I cannot say that I ever recall spam bots being a significant issue in the forum. Sure you might see one user register and post spam per week...big deal, users report it and it gets pulled by the next mod to see it within a few hours.

They also said that it was done to try and keep bad sellers off the forum. That seems to be flawed logic to me. Half of the random joe users on that forum are kids that have never sold or shipped auto parts, and you're more likely to get screwed by one of those guys than you are by some dedicated parts seller who has a beef with the mods and has been shut down and sent away.

Also after I was banned for 5 years by the mods there over the IB vendor stuff, I could still get on the forum and buy and sell, I just had to take extra technical steps to make it happen. But if someone really wants to get on the forum and spam it or do business, they can do it relatively easily regardless of the new member block. So then it comes back to, a new member block really only hurts the legitimate new members who come here for the very reason the forum was founded: they need immediate help, or immediate parts/service help to fix their car. Not in 30 days or 30 posts or whatever else.

I did agree with the "new members tech section" which restricted them from posting "how do I unflood my rotary" or "how do I know if I need a new engine" in the general tech section about once per day.

What would be really slick is some feature to integrate search results into the "make new thread" process. Like on ebay or other sites, if you go there and try to start a customer service chat/email/call, you are often directed to select some general parameters/categories, or do a keyword search for your question first. Then the system uses that info to display several top FAQ topics before you are allowed to follow through with your request. IT would be awesome if the forum software could automatically display top search results, archived and FAQ posts relevant to the user's new post BEFORE they are allowed to submit it. But, I don't even know if this version of VB has any support for that kind of feature.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (3)

The way I read it, the issue applied to,

1) users with neither the required time or the required posts,

2) users with the required time but not the required posts,

3) users with the required posts but not the required time.

IT seems like it should be clarified that some users with both the required time and the required post count could also be affected, and those users must manually request clearance.

alnielsen

iTrader: (4)

They can post anywhere they want. They just can't start a new thread anywhere but the New Member sub-forum. And, it is watched for new members problems. These are almost always something simple that has been run into several times before.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (3)

Ah, see, that's different from how rx7club implemented theirs (and better IMO).

They made it so that new members could not start threads OR post anywhere except in the new member area. They also hid the entire classified section from view until the post count was satisfied.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

A few points on that RR:

I hate RX7Club's method of restriction. It is rather painful. 8Club's restriction is far more friendly, in that it still allows replying to posts. The restriction is only on creating new threads.

There was a significant reduction in spam botting on 8club since this was implemented, although I admit that the spam bots have shifted to just replying to threads and putting the spam in their signatures. At least 3 "new members" joined last night between 8pm and 1am (EST) that all had IP addresses of a Pakistani Telecommunications company, as an example of the volume.

Agreed that the mostly likely transaction injuries are when either the buyer or seller is a kid that doesn't know how to handle things. I don't see where it's hurting any other transactions though. Members with the restriction still can reply to WTB or FS threads, they can still create threads in their regional classifieds for local transactions, and they can still do business in PMs.


Before the restriction was put into place, new membership was dropping, and since it was put into place, it is climbing again, and new members are no longer being driven away en-mass by existing member's inability to treat them with patience. Yes, there are stats on quite a few of these metrics.

The restriction is a very minor one, and is indeed helping the forum and individual members, not hurting it.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

As Zoom44 noted, it appears that the issue in these cases is simply where they haven't logged in since the restriction was put into place in May, and give the system an hour or so and it will be lifted without manual interference. I edited the announcement to convey that message

Gravey

iTrader: (3)

Just wanted to chime in as an actual newb who is currently under the restrictions.

They are pretty much painless. I have a place to start threads if I need to, and I can browse all of the rest of the forums and comment on any thread I want to. I actually found the new member section BETTER than any other forum I have been to as there was a lot of information readily available without having to search for it. It actually saved me from starting threads to ask questions. The few questions that I did have, there was already a place to ask them.

I think you guys have done a great job organizing the site. Just my .02, and I have been a member of every forum that I have owned a vehicle for.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (3)

Yes, that is much less intrusive and should work well compared to the other forum. I admit that I had not taken any time to research the actual requirements imposed on this forum.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the feedback Gravey, that is exactly the effect we wanted to have (I say "we", though Zoom did all the work The rest of us just supplied opinions)


I've found that the only new members that find the restriction painful or unnatural are ones that have no interest in being members anyway, and I can label nearly all of those with the tag "belligerently hostile". They are fairly rare, definitely rarer than spam bots.