First of all just to make that clear, I am not making this to complain or anything of that type. This forum is a very beautiful place and I know the admins only want to do what they think is best to keep it a good place which is very nice. It would be really sad if anything happened and it became a less nice place because of spammers or bad people coming around.

However I wanted to say a few opinions on the system of this forum which currently requires moderators to both approve a new registering user before they can join the forum and to approve each of their posts manually until they reach a certain number of posts.

I dunno, but isn't that a bit too harsh maybe? Of course everyone enters and stays if they prove they are nice, but still that might make some users feel a bit too... untrusted and such. It also slows down their posting until someone finds and approves each of their posts manually. If someone posts something bad they can just be moderated afterward... not all people are always nice and such.

I agree and have seen that the problem with spammers and haters on the internet has gotten pretty bad since recent so I can understand though. Just wondering if maybe this system could be made less "harsh" for newer users but without allowing then me as I'm just a 4-post newbie but was just wondering about this. I hope I didn't do anything wrong to ask about such a thing but yeah, just thought I should leave my thoughts about this here.

Firstly as the Founder and Administrator of the forum it is my approval that is required for each and every membership application. I am informed by email about every application, and I Validate new members every day if there are any waiting, so they rarely have to wait more than 24 hrs.
The final decision is mine alone, and I haven't refused anyone yet. Thank goodness that has not been necessary.
As for your second point about post approval. I absolutely agree with you Taoki, it is a very new thing for this forum. We never used to be so distrusting and I am sorry if it makes you feel unwelcome, because I can assure you that you are not.
The truth is that a little while ago we had some trouble, this was spread from this forum to others too, and on one of those forums there were some members who threatened to come here and post some really nasty things. Frankly I did not want that on my forum, and I still don't. These people really need to grow up and face the fact that there are always going to be people who do not think the same way as they do. However since this kind of childishness seems to be more voluntary than environmental I shouldn't think they will ever grow out of it.
In order to prevent such nastiness happening here I thought it a good idea to bring moderator approval of all new members posts into force. This is to protect all members both old and new from these people, and their unfortunate attitudes towards those whom they consider different enough from them, to deserve ridicule and harrasment by them.
I decided I did not want this to happen on my forum, and the good thing about it being my forum is that if I don't want it, I can do things to try and ensure that it doesn't happen.
I know that it can make the forum seem less than welcoming and friendly, but it has less of a bad impact on our first impression than a lot of nasty posts covering the forum in their ugliness and bad feelings.
We always trusted and liked everyone, we posted honestly, and talked openly, there was debate and disagreement here but no hate. It took someone we welcomed as one of us to bring that here.
I wish there was a way to make this system less harsh, but still as competent, but I'm afraid I haven't found it yet. Until I do or these people who made the threats grow up this system will have to stay.
I just hope that with this post I have helped you understand us, and the forum a little better and explained to you satisfactorily why these measures are necessary.

Thankyou for your post and for giving me a chance to explain my position.

Lady C.

Thank you for your reply. First of all I didn't feel unwelcome here myself, I was actually really happy and found this a very wonderful place before I even registered... just thought that others could feel that way and find it a bit like that with this. I also didn't know about the problem with these bad people who threatened to attack here and such. As I said it also makes me sad that the internet is so full of such people today and I can't yet understand why so many people need to choose to be hateful.

Well I should also probably note that a little of it might just be me as in the past I had problems with some online places important to me where I was threatened to be blocked by admins and such. Not that I did anything wrong but yeah that's a longer story so since then I have a strong thing against overly-moderated sites which could push me to be more suspicious of that. So please ignore me if I may happen to exaggerate a bit Hope my point was valid still.

Anyway from the technical point of view "less welcoming and friendly" would be a the correct description of what I thought could risk happening. Maybe this is just temporary and once the troubles will go away it will be removed. I also appreciate the way you care for the members here very much, that is a really wonderful thing I didn't see on other forums a lot. So yeah I guess what will be will be *smiles*

Yes your point was very valid, and I didn't mind explaining the reasons behind the addition of moderated posting for new members. I really wish it wasn't necessary too, but those who 'make the choice to be hateful' give me little choice right now.
I am really looking forward to the time when I feel these measures are no longer necessary.
In fact on that day I think I'll throw a party and invite every member to celebrate with me.

Hope it's soon. lol
I love a good party.

xoxo
Lady C.

Here's a thought. If we gave the moderators that are on the forum regularly a little more power to suspend accounts until the Admins can deal with any infractions couldn't we dispense with approved posting for new members?
We could make it so that anyone who posts purely out of maliciousness just to make trouble is banned immediately with no second chances.
Also the rules could be reviewed and updated to reflect the new thinking.

It is just a thought, and of course it is still your forum Lady C, but it might help the forum get back to the way it used to be, and Shade's right, that's what I think we need to do too. To say a great big phlurrrrrfppp to the Borg Kin and get back to the way we were.

I know it is not up for a vote or anything, but I still have to say that this seems like a really great idea to me. Maybe we could make a 'Hall of Shame' to put their posts in?
Somewhere dark and empty for them, and instead of replying and giving their garbage attention, we just move them there and leave them as evidence of the kind of sad crowd they are?

Well, I have spoken to Zygo and we are willing to put it to a forum vote if that is what everyone wants.
It has been proposed by Darkness and I assume it has been seconded by Shade. If that is the case Shade please say so and we will place the matter in the hands of the members.

Lady C.

Yes that's the case.
Officially I second that suggestion.

I would be up for a forum vote on this, if everyone else is sure it is safe to change it to something else.

The place to vote on this is in the forum announcements part Taoki. If you go back to the first page and then go two sections up from this one, it's in there.
It's called time for a vote, or something like that, just in case someone posted soemthing else and took it off the main board.

Hope you find it.