Having heard about the site at tonight's event in London (thanks for the drinks and the fun conversations!), I had a go at writing a few posts. However, it was almost impossible for me to write anything of any use or relevance without including at least one link, which the site refused to let me do Now, I'm all for blocking spam and stopping spammers, however... Preventing people coming over from FlyerTalk from posting any helpful answers with links in them doesn't strike me as a great way to win new contributors! Any chance of a way for people to prove their credentials from a related site (eg FlyerTalk), and have the annoying new user restrictions lifted? (On the Travel StackExchange which I'm also a member of, no link as it won't let me, if you have earnt a bit of merit on another site in the network, you can carry that over to skip some of the annoying new user restrictions when you join the site. Something like that would be nice!)
Thank you attending the launch. If I remember correctly, you need to have posted 10 times in order to be able to post links etc. @Randy Petersen , could you please confirm? Cheers
The error message does say that you need 10 posts to be able to include URLs. However, it's a bit tricky to write 10 useful posts to get there, without any links in them until that point...
Appreciate your frustration GG, but the 10 post rules is an in-built forum mechanism for discouraging SPAM. I will talk to the techie people about a work around for people who evidently are not spammers, such as yourself, but in the meantime you are just 3 posts away..!
I do note the irony of people being forced to post spammy posts to get around the spam post blocker... I have asked the technical team if there's a workaround. Delighted to see you've reached the magical 10 post mark so you're in the clear, but it's a fair point, duly noted.
Good question and welcome. You identified the purpose of any blocks for new members—an unfortunate by-product from the Web itself. As you likely know, InsideFlyer and FlyerTalk both have these policies and I know, since i introduced them to both sites. Even a new website can become victim to hundreds of attacks by spammers daily and in fact Milepoint/InsideFlyer and FlyerTalk often see thousands of attempts daily. The truth is, we are not aware of any policy on either website preventing people from posting helpful answers or questions. But the age old dilemma of 'friend or foe'. Thus the easy approach here—simply let us know. There are clearly no technology boundaries that prevent respecting each member on their own merit and everyone here welcomes those opportunities. Know anyone that would enjoy a relaxed environment in which to pay forward our shared and combined travel knowledge? Let any of the co-founders and volunteers and we'll be the first to tip our hat and welcome you aboard ... with posting linking member benefits. Out with the bad guys (spammers), in with the good guys. Thanks for asking, this is sure to help others.
Aside from travel, one of the other things I'm involved in is Open Source. One community in particular was having a big problem with spam on their wiki, and spam blacklists etc weren't helping. The eventual "fix" was to prevent all newly signed up users from posting anywhere at all by default. New users are directed to send a "welcome" message to the mailing list, saying what their username is, and why they want to edit. Pretty much within an hour, they're then granted full edit rights. We're had no more spam since introducing the rule! Maybe you could offer a similar route here - 10 posts, or direct people to post to a "Welcome to the Forum" thread? That thread could ask people to say a little bit about their interests, and link to their profile on a related site if they have one. Anyone posting there anything that looks like a sensible normal person, and not a spammer, gets their account given full posting permissions by an admin. Could an approach like that work, do you think?
Also people who can verify themselves by other means, e.g. off-site message to trusted party who can vouch for them. Or as Gagravarr suggest link to their other profile. An alternative might be the ability for members to invite others, and when people join having been invited their count drops to just 2 posts before links or something like that. (needs the infrastructure to easily revoke though).
