If the purpose of the forum is simply to identify sentience, then personally I see no need for ordinary membership to be able to post there. That would only be necessary if the forum was more of a purpose with the old Intro forums. And we all remember how that went.

And I don't see why bots would be spamming like mad, presumably they'd be spamming at the standard rate that we've been experiencing. So long as there were a number of folk keeping an eye on the Intro forum, I can't see that it would end up snowed under.

 

This would work but only if posts in Intro forum are screened by a staff member first, so as to make sure that bots don't start spamming in there itself.

 

Or a 1-2 post limit unless you've been allowed past the introduction forum, assuming that's possible.

With a few people assigned to just paying attention to the introduction forum and deleting bots and letting legitimate people through, there really shouldn't be much of a delay for accomplishing either of those goals. Of course, I don't know a whole lot about setting any of this up, so this is me pretty much talking out of my ass.

Yeah, I don't know if I could do anything to help out, but I'd be more than happy to try if there is anything.

 

It's actually quite easy to set up. You create two user groups. The first, "applicants"--though "lurkers" might be a better name (more on that later), have a single post limit placed on the group itself. Furthermore, posting for this group is limited to a sub-forum that the regular members cannot see. All new registrants would be in this group by default.

Anyone who wishes to join the forum so they can just read the WbA and vote in the library can quite contentedly remain in this group indefinitely--this is why "lurker" would probably be better.

The second group, known as "full member" or maybe "posting member" or "participating member" is basically everyone else other than the mods and admins themselves. When a "lurker" wishes to become a "posting member," they use their single available post to post in the forum visible only to them and the mods a simple request to have their account upgraded. A mod then goes into that user's profile and changes their group from "lurker" to "posting member" and then they gain full access to the ability to post and lose the ability to see the intro forum.

Spam bots could then post their one single ad in a forum that none of us regular members sees and then lose the ability to post anymore from there, thus no real clutter in that thread. A mod can come along once a month and clean out all the posts in that forum.

But yeah, that's actually really simple to implement with current forum tools.

 

Pretty much what I said here.

I think this would be best because even if the single post is used to spread spam, it wouldn't be visible except to mods therefore pointless.

 

Do you want a trophy Castiel? Why are you quoting your own post from this thread and saying, "umm yeah, this would be best."

 

Unfortunately, I think this is a result of my longwindedness. Essentially, I was just responding to

more than anything: that current forum tools available to the administrators allow such a system to be implemented very easily, as well as how one would go about doing it.

 

If we're doing that, then we can we clear up the old introduction archives too? At the moment, they're just sitting there taking up space, and we wouldn't want someone making a mistake.

 

Someone suggested putting the introduction archives into a subthread in the HOS. I quite liked that idea.

 

Do you mean subforum? I assumed you did, but then I thought that it was a feasible plan as well, so not sure which you are suggesting.

 

Whoops, yeah - subforum.

 

Well Whooves, the old Intro archives are locked. So it'd be pretty damn impressive if someone managed to mistakenly post in them...

I think they're there for posterity, for folk to look back on etc.

 

That's my point. If some newbie went along to the big ol' section called 'Introduction Archives' and spent half-an-hour attempting to post, they're going to be frustrated to find the place they're supposed to post in is somewhere else. It's just a big waste of everyone's time.

I'm not saying get rid of it, just move it from the front page where it could be confusing.

 

I agree with the individuals that suggest questions be placed in the application. Not the kind with the answers, but standard Harry Potter stuff. What is the tool for immortality? Harry's hair color? Who says Hermy? Etc. Registration should remain instantaneous.

An idea occurred to me while reading the IRC related posts. Why not have an embedded client at the bottom of the page? I do recall some questionable conversations happening there, but limiting it to logged in members would be good. Or maybe just the option should some want that?

 

Well..."What is the tool for immortality" could be any number of answers. Horcrux, Invisiblity Cloak, Deathly Hallows, Philosophers Stone, Sorcerers Stone (because some dunces still refer to it as that)...Probably more that I haven't come up with in the last 5 seconds.

A) All questions are open to interpretation in how they should be answered. So would the system allow for multiple different answers? What about typing errors in the answers?

B) We've got a thriving Dresden Files community as well, and whilst many members read both HP and DF, I'm sure we have some who only read DF and dislike HP. We would miss out on such members joining in future if HP questions were the route to joining.

C) What about people who may join because of exposure through other communities, like CyberNations or Project-Terra? They may like the community we've got, the RL forums, politics forums, technical discussions etc. And they may easily have nothing whatsoever to do with fanfiction.

Questions are a bad idea in general, and making them HP specific is even worse.

 

I would've sworn the answer was 'Get Published'

...so obviously, Mordecai has a point.

 

Conquer Troy?

 

Well now you're just needling the question. That may be discarded or permit multiple answers. The others are straightforward one word answers. They don't have to be HP specific then, but rather forum related, as someone said, "what color are the forums." Who owns the forums? Are we a .net or .org? Etc.

Still think that we should keep instant registration.

 

Thanks everyone for your valuable input. I'm reasonably certain we're not going to go with the questions thing, and you can all stop suggesting stuff.