I more I think about this, the more I grow to dislike it.

Sure, the spammers are all newbies, of course. They want to get on here and cause as much trouble as they can, in the shortest amount of time possible. But it's absolutely unfair that the newbie as a whole has to feel the blunt of this, and no one else. Honestly, these people are NEW, hence the name, and everything about them. They need to talk to people, they need to learn about this site, and this restriction on there totally limits that.

I'm sure a lot of you are familiar with the N-Sider forums. They had something like this that limited Newbies as well. I know I left the moment I learned of them. I didn't care that it was only a 3-day thing. It sucked. And I know that if I came onto ACC at this time, knowing I had this long restriction ahead of me, I would have been long gone.

I know, the restrictions have helped with the spam. But I feel it's only fair if everyone has posting restrictions, or no one does. This site needs flood control. It needs it more than anything else. And I really think it deserves to be the topic of serious discussion among the staff. At least a more serious discussion than flipping YOUTUBE LINKS, for heaven's sake.

But I just think the restrictions are lame. This site can implement as many rules as it wants, as many violation points and restrictions, but it won't stop the spam floods entirely. Almost every other successful forum I've been to has flood control, and they treat it like just another gear in the machine of what makes a community go. I think it's absolutey demeaning. Like I said, sure, it DOES lower the spam floods down. But the result is teeming masses of people who don't get to properly introduce themselves, learn about this site from others, or play a part in the community.

I agree completely with you KupoKupoKupo. Also, a new member that is not a spammer might grow impatient (or limited) and want to leave the site due to lack of enjoyment. That's another problem about the restrictions.

Flood control would be nice, but the new member restrictions aren't entirely meaningless.

With all the spamming that was happening due to multiple accounts, the restrictions needed to be implemented. It can be unfair, yes, but many sites have restrictions on new members. It's for the exact same reasons as well. Spamming has gone down considerably since the restrictions were implemented, and they still allow the members to post in PTs as much as they want. With all the helpful members on the Welcome board, I don't see it as much of a problem.

I was a member of the Nsider Forums as well, and I remember when the restrictions on new members were placed there as well. It drastically helped that community as well, there was a huge decline in spam and other garbage on their boards after that.

Still, I do think flood control would be better. Some more complications could arise after it's implemented, but it'd stop spammers that are regular members.

In regard to the Youtube thing, at least the staff took the time to let the community decide what to do about the links. I'm sure it's not the only thing being discussed either.

I fail to understand why the restrictions were put in place in preference to flood control, the latter seems to me to be a far better option.

Yeah, I agree. I don't see why flood control hasn't been put into place. That would cut down on spamming from all accounts, and doesn't punish newbies just for being new.

Flood control is actually a current SIC discussion. It is something that we will probablly see in the future here on ACC.

The new member restrictions aren't to "Punish" New members, it's there to prevent multiple account spamming. And it's not even that bad, most new members don't even rush out to the boards right away anyways.

Haven't you ranted about this before, Kupo? I've been waiting for something new from you.

Flood control is THE top issue for the SIC. However, the group can only do so much until it gets to the implementation phase. Jader has pending projects.

I've joined several forums that had new member restrictions. One of them required all your posts to be reviewed by the mods and another limited your posting for quite awhile. I liked the sites enough and found enough to occupy my time that it didn't matter. If the new member restrictions "scare" people away, they probably didn't really care about being on the site. There is enough reading material (walls of text) on the boards to keep someone occupied for a couple of months.

Hey the Flood Control's active!

I think it's a good idea because it will help stop spam, and who posts a message every 5 seconds anyway?

Dude, I'm going to sticky your thread for the time being so people who have questions can post them here regarding the Flood Control.

I want to first start out by addressing your question regarding the new member restrictions. There were more to these than just a form of spam control. Spam was the main focus but not the only reason.

The Flood Control is currently set at 60 seconds between threads and 5 seconds between posts.

Does this reffer to only new members or ACC Members?

ACC member,
marmarbotros

I'm pretty sure it's for all members.

From what I just read, it is my understanding that the flood control effects every account on ACC. I applaud the Staff and Admins for coming to a consensus and for acting on this very important issue.

I suppose my only comment or question would be: is 60 seconds too short? *dunno* I suppose time will tell and, as cmh said, they can always work to tweak the times in either direction if it becomes problematic.

Whoa... I'd been thinking of something similar to this for months, yet I didn't know how to word it... great job, Kupokupokupo! This will keep down the spam even more! Yet... there is a way to duplicate threads/posts. Will the 60/5 seconds per thread/post put effect into this so there will be no duplications?

Again, great job!

Have the New Member Restrictions been disabled for now, or are we going to keep them?

Probably not. But think about it. If a spammer attacked one of the boards yesterday there would be about two pages of spam after ten minutes. This way, there'll only be 10 threads at most! You wouldn't bother would you.

Yeah, I didn't think so.

I think the reply settings should be increased by a little bit. Maybe to 10 or 15 seconds?

The probationary period for new members is going to stay the same.

And yes this affects all members but most might never notice.

Absolutely great. I salute you. Those conditions are precisely what I would have proposed. Thanks for helping the site out; I'm sure it will combat the spammers.

Wouldn't it be more efficent if a moderator was automatically notified when a member exeded the limit? And I agree with mammanator, 60 seconds is too short. Honestly, nobody posts a thread every minute. I say 10 minutes, or 5 at the least. Only spammers are desperate enough to post that often.

"Only spammers are desperate enough to post that often."

While realizing I'm possibly about to contradict myself, that could have been the driving force all along, shadowsquid.

Wait, what? I am sorry, but could you reprase that? Stupid 13 year old brain...

Let me see.... Yes, it worked.

Anyway, how will this help? People could just spam again every 60 seconds.

Take off the newbie restrictions! Now that you have the flood control, there's no point in limiting the newbies. If somebody spammed every 60 seconds then they couldn't really do much damage before they're dealt with. Now that these restrictions apply to everybody, why further limit the newbies? I see no point in newbie restrictions now that there is flood control.

EthanW:

Less of it. Stopping everyone from ever spamming would be like telling everyone in the world to stop wearing pink clothing. There is nothing you could do to enforce it, and no one would listen.

Ehh... I'm indifferent. But with this, the Newbie controls should go.