2 important forum changes

[Bruno]

Bruno strikes again. Although this time it is a change noone should notice. It should be transparent to all seniors and people who abide by the clasifieds rules.

1) Plain users no longer have access to the Conversation forum. They will need to be member of a group called 'Conversation users'. Membership to this group will be granted automatically after 14 days AND 20 posts. This is to prevent newbies from getting distracted or signing up -because- of the conversation, and to prevent banned people from evading their ban by registering a new account.

2) Plain users no longer have post access to the classifieds. The will need to be a member of 'Classifieds users'. Membership to this group will be granted automatically, after 90 days and 100 posts, or 180 days and 50 posts.
The 5 ad limit will also be enforced automatically.
Membership to this group can also be granted by admins for special cases.

Both rules should make our (mod) lives easier, especially the classifieds rule, since it doesn't need to be policed so intensively anymore.

The only downside I can see is that newbies will no longer be able to post WTB ads. I checked, and the vast majority is WTS. Also, newbies have no real idea what to ask for in their ad, so their best course of action would be to inform themselves first in the forum, and then check out the sale ads, possibly with the help and advice of a more senior member.

[0livia]

Hail Bruno!!!
Thanks, especially for the conversation usergroup!

[hoglahoo]

May members request to be dropped from the conversation users group?

[mainaman]

are these two groups created yet?
I looked up the existing ones and I was not able to find them.
EDIT:
I read the post more carefully, and found the answer to my question .

[Xury]

Awww, man. No more lurking. Oh wait, What IS discussed in the Conversation forum? I don't think I ever looked. Any razor porn? I love the razor porn!

[JimmyHAD]

Bruno, another possible downside if I understand the post count requirement correctly is that a new member will not be able to access the classifieds for member services ? I was going to link a guy with 1 post count to member services for having an ebay razor he bought honed but didn't bother as I have the expectation that he couldn't get there anyway. Is this the way it is ?

[hoglahoo]

Is this the way it is ?

I believe the classifieds are still visible for all, but there will not be "post access" until the minimum requirements are met.

You should be able to log out and verify this - that is, if you ever do hahahaha

[Bruno]

Nono jimmy. New users can still access the classifieds. They just can't post ads. As far as I can see, the only effect of this new setup is that the rules for posting ads are now enforced automatically, instead of by a mod reviewing all new ads.

[Bruno]

May members request to be dropped from the conversation users group?

Intresting question. Yes, this should be possible, though I wil have to figure out how to keep the scheduler from just adding said person to the classifieds user group again. I'll look into that to see what can be done.

Of course I am still a big believer in 'Just say no'. I.e. noone makes you click the conversation forum, so don't complain that you -can- visit it.

EDIT: I just had a look, and I could either fudge it (abuse the old rep system) or create a new usergroup that is just like the regular users, but without conversation permissions. It's a bit of a bother, because I'll have to add additional permission settings to the forums that are off-limits for users (mod place and such).

It's not impossible, but there would have to be a sizable group of people before I'd consider implementing it. I can't imagine that there are many people who would not want to visit the conversation yet are really hindered by its existence.

[bbshriver]

What happened to the User CP? I haven't had it anymore the last couple of days...