Time between registering and posting
 

I had my friend register for Zelaron, but he said he couldn't post for a while. I think that this would definitely deter new members from posting here...

Either he was making a mistake with his posts, or it's some kind of new feature implemented into vB3.5.

I can't remember having to wait to post my first post.

It's a spambot countermeasure

Perhaps we should require imput of a certain random string of letters and numbers, that way real people can post from the start but bots cannot. Something like you get when registering new mail. Not being able to post is probably a good reason to leave rather than stay. I know it would have bothered me.

The problem is that the spam problem it was implemented to detter involves real people. There's already an image check to filter out the bots. The delay is only half an hour, or no time, if they post in the introduction forum, though I didn't sticky that because we'd probably just have a lot of ads in the introduction forum...

Well, wouldn't it be better if the mods just filtered out most of the spam and we didn't deter the potential incomers?

For all we know, they're already doing that. I haven't seen ads for weeks.

Really, I don't see the point in possibly missing out on activity we could be getting, just because of spammers. Mods can take care of spammers in 2 minutes. The spammers weren't even that horrible, just annoying, but it didn't ruin my Zelaron experience or anything.

Agreed.

I'm scarred for life.

I dont think we really need the 30 min thing. At most, the most a person will see that shit for is a few hours. Once they are in the trash can, only the other mods will see them int he new posts search, and even then it's not a big deal.

If we are to keep it, shorten it to 5-10 mins, and when the user registers inform them to take this time to read the many stickies and rules.

Fine, whatever, it just seemed like every day when I visit, I'd see a whole page of stupid ads in the trash...

Gave me something to do :p

Awwww, poor Sov is feeling unused.

Btw, how long is it before you're logged out because you've just sat staring at one thread/page for the past n minutes?

Like 15 or 30, though if you selected the "Remember me" checkbox, it makes no difference to you.

I never tick that box. :p

Is there any way to turn it off for those who are posting or making a new thread? There've been a couple of times when I've had a very long reply, and I go to post it, only to find I've been logged off.

I can predict your answer "Tick the 'Remember Me' box".

Yep. That is the only solution, aside from composing your post in notepad first, then relogging in when you're done.

You should ALWAYS back up a long post before you try to post it. I've written up too many long threads and lost them because I didn't back them up(for instance, I backed up the "The2" thread before I posted it, because it took me probably half an hour to an hour to find and quote all of those posts.)

I even have the "Remember me" box checked, but I still back up long posts. You never know what might happen, Zelaron could be temporarily down and you get a 404 message and lose your post, your internet might die and you try to post only to get an error page.

I've learnt to copy it all before I hit post, just in case.