I suggest for new accounts the admin set the requirement to wait 15 minutes interval in-between posts, for example for the first 30 posts or so.
This way it can prevent spams and also recurring/ returning multi-account trolls.
Please consider it and thanks.

I am thinking of having different members groups in the near future..

It will be newbies(10 posts and lower): post/topic flood control, no pm & search functions, etc..
members: which is what every member is right now.
elite members: 10,000 post and up. Have their own chat forum

sounds good? should i add or delete anything?

it took me more then 3 years and im not even at 2k yet lol. make it 5000! youre @$$ aint even at 10k

I was just thinking that lol.. I was like wait a min.. at 10k post.. I ain't even have that yet.. lol.. better lower it down to 5000 or so lol

Yeah that sounds good Ben, please implement it.

Except I dont think 10 posts to have posting-interval removed is good enough, it should be 30 posts, or at least 20.

And make it 15 minutes interval.

I can give you a serious feedback right now that this forum is being damaged 80% by the usual 10% returning multi-account trolls.

Placing some limits to new accounts can significantly slow down their havoc.

Other than this please appoint more mods and enforce a stricter environment.

I have a suggestion. I'm not sure if it will work long-term, but I think it's a good short-term measure to lessen the trolls here.

Why not have new members approved only if they have an assigned invitation code from an AF member? Perhaps only assign this invitation code to non-troll members if possible. This way the new approved members would be more credible. Sure we'd probably get much less registrations, but I'd say quality counts not quantity.

If Ben could Ban Mndeg, all problem will be solve instantly. Garrantty 100%

Anything to stop the spam is welcome.

Most of us come to AF to chat and learn stuff with others in the open forum.
Having individual member forums would be like including our personal blogs in AF.
If other members can still chat and share info in our individual forums, this could become an attractive feature.




So new membership would be manually controlled by current members ?
How would we judge who is allowed to join ?
If we need to interview new members before we allow them to join, it could become a very labour intensive procedure.
How would the procedure be administrated and regulated ?
Is this what you had in mind, or did I misunderstand you ?


Crystallised Dream wrote something that I find valuable : We need to find a way to reward quality members.
Post count is one way to show good participation, but quality of the posts is another way that is often overlooked.

We don't need that kind of regulation,we just need to lessen the privilages of the newbies.


Just give the searching feature back to the regular members just don't allow newbies to search.

No, we don't need to interview members who are interested to join AF. Basically the concept is: If you want to join this forum, get a special invitation code from a forum member.

We improve on that by making sure not just any AF member gets the privilege of inviting people to the forum. This is because (unbanned) trolls are also members of AF, and giving all AFers the privilege will enable them to abuse this position and create new accounts. In other words, we should only allow non-troll AF members to have the privilege of giving out invitation codes to interested applicants.

Sounds good, but how about more stringent access to the ethnic chats? With more restricted access to particularly "controversial" chats.

Also, please open search functions and relieve PM restrictions for the regular members.

That is too restrictve. What gives the AF members the right and the burden of who's to join and who's to be rejected? I think we should take this step by step.

I just realized Crystallised Dream, deep down, is of the Dark Side. She's so tyrannical. (no offense)

Members don't choose who to join and who to reject la... it's simply 'if you want to join AF, make sure you get an invitation code from a member'. Like how you join closed facebook groups only if you are invited to, and I don't think that's repressive isn't it?

It's not a new concept. I've seen other forums do this as a kind of quality/damage control and from the response of the members it seems to be quite effective. Of course I'm not saying it must be done... but it is one of the options AF can consider.

OK
Now I am clear on your idea.
So the effectiveness of this measure depends on whether spam merchants will go the extra step of asking a current member for a friendly invite to join.
Such personal contact may deter many spammers, because the merchants of junk mail prefer anonymity.

Yes, precisely. I believe most spammers and trolls do not have affiliations with any AF member, which can be played to this measure's advantage.

I am not against the 15 minutes wait interval, but I think it would be more effective for blocking spammers than trolls. If you are bent on trolling, what is 15 minutes? I must admit it does however, give time for people to rethink their motives for joining AF.

I disagree with the 15 minute wait rule between posts. It is too limiting for interesting topics.

However, to limit spam-bots, you can ban account with it's IP.

1st warning: just a warning.

2nd warning: 1 day no post

last warning: account ban(totally) + temporary IP ban(few days or a week)

This will stop some trolls keep making new accounts to incite flames and hates between different groups of posters here.


TomAsia

Ben, I know you've been to Gamefaqs. Their karma system is genius. Get something similar.