Happy Atheist Forum

 ADMIN EDIT NOTE:  Welcome to HAF. Since we'd like to get to know you better before jumping into debates please introduce yourself. Users who comply with forum rules will graduate to full membership after 10 posts. Till that time your ability to post is limited to the "Getting to Know You" (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/viewforum.php?f=50) section of the forum. It is our hope that this small restriction increases the overall atmosphere of HAF.

Hi,

I registered yesterday and even sent an introductory message in the appropriate forum  <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/cheesygrin.gif" alt=":D" title="cheesy grin" />. But unless I'm missing something very obvious, I don't seem to be able to post (or create a new topic for that matter) in some of the forums. For instance, there's a thread that I'd like to contribute to in "Religion" but I don't get an option to post. Am I missing something? I read the rules and I cannot see anything about an incubation period or such.

Thanks,

Quote from: "DirtyLeo"Hi,

I registered yesterday and even sent an introductory message in the appropriate forum  . But unless I'm missing something very obvious, I don't seem to be able to post (or create a new topic for that matter) in some of the forums. For instance, there's a thread that I'd like to contribute to in "Religion" but I don't get an option to post. Am I missing something? I read the rules and I cannot see anything about an incubation period or such.

Thanks,

You have to get to 50 posts before you get access to all areas of the forum. This is a relatively new rule brought about by a spate of trolls. Stick with it it'll be worth it.

Thanks for the prompt response  :D.

Well... Looks like I'm going to have to be patient then... and discover which ones are open to me at the moment.

Edit: typo

Quote from: "DirtyLeo"Well... Looks like I'm going to have to be patient then... and discover which ones are open to me at the moment.

You have make 50 posts to post in areas outside of the Getting To Know You section, which pretty much comes down to The Laid Back Lounge . This is a relatively new rule brought about by a spate of trolls. Stick with it it'll be worth it.

It might be worth tossing in a paragraph like that into introduction threads as people seem to be having the same problem as Leo.
I did plagiarise and twist Tank's post a bit.

Quote from: "The Magic Pudding"You're limited to the Getting To Know You section which pretty much comes down to The Laid Back Lounge.

Thanks :D.

this is on the board index as the intro description:

QuoteIntroductions
Welcome to HAF. Since we'd like to get to know you better before jumping into debates please introduce yourself. Users who comply with forum rules will graduate to full membership after 50 posts. Till that time your ability to post is limited to the "Getting to Know You" section of the forum. It is our hope that this small restriction increases the overall atmosphere of HAF.

Do we need a thread about it as well and if so, where would people see it...the help desk?  I'm not so sure that will help because I've had a couple people send me a pm saying they can't post anywhere at all...one was a theist who assumed it was us being biased against him so I think my being offended by his comment offended him as he never came back.

Quote from: "Whitney"this is on the board index as the intro description:

QuoteIntroductions
Welcome to HAF. Since we'd like to get to know you better before jumping into debates please introduce yourself. Users who comply with forum rules will graduate to full membership after 50 posts. Till that time your ability to post is limited to the "Getting to Know You" section of the forum. It is our hope that this small restriction increases the overall atmosphere of HAF.

Do we need a thread about it as well and if so, where would people see it...the help desk?  I'm not so sure that will help because I've had a couple people send me a pm saying they can't post anywhere at all...one was a theist who assumed it was us being biased against him so I think my being offended by his comment offended him as he never came back.

A thread would be a good idea. Can one automate a 'meet and greet' PM to all new members?

As a good citizen, I immediately checked the omnipresent "Forum rules" link but it wasn't there so I would have seen it if it had been there.
Would it be wrong to add it there?

Added to the forum rules:  viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1522 (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1522)

Also going to add "I'm new and" to the front of the OP and sticky it.

edit:

I also added the blurb to the registration form and made "I didn't read that...whatever" the default option.  Users can choose to answer "yes, I understand" but it's not a required field (but admins and mods can see if they read it or not...in case some troll tries to complain about it).

Thanks!
IMHO this is going to help.

I read the rules first and caught it. I thought it was a rather high count, but I would presume this site would be a magnet for the KK trolls.

Quote from: "Gasturbine"I read the rules first and caught it. I thought it was a rather high count, but I would presume this site would be a magnet for the KK trolls.

There are a lot of trivial 'get to know you threads' in the Laid Back Lounge where you can push your count up without straining to be all philosophical etc. The interesting thing is that this little 'apprenticeship' period really does appear to be working, the recent members who have made there 50 or are working towards it are a rally nice bunch of people. This place was already a good forum as Whitney et al put a lot of effort into keeping it that way, it appears to be getting even better now. So do your 50 and I expect you'll find it was very much worth the effort.

I joined the forum mostly to learn, knowing I may not have much to contribute, so the restriction didn't bother me, but it does seem to be quite an effective tool. Trolls wait for no post count

I agree with the 50 limit. I do find myself rambling about things that are a little silly... I plan on saying "hello" to a few more new people and hopefully I'll cross the finish line tonight.

I'm glad I found this before asking. I was just wondering why I couldn't respond to a post on the politics board.

Serious question though.

Wouldn't this contribute to more trolling? Or I suppose the more appropriate term here would be spamming. Does this policy not cause a whole bunch of useless responses; responses that don't contribute much overall to the forum?

This is simply speculation, those who have been here longer, mod's in particular would know better. Half of my posting this was to increase my post count anyway.  ;)

Quote from: ThinkAnarchy on May 22, 2011, 08:49:55 AM
I'm glad I found this before asking. I was just wondering why I couldn't respond to a post on the politics board.

Serious question though.

Wouldn't this contribute to more trolling? Or I suppose the more appropriate term here would be spamming. Does this policy not cause a whole bunch of useless responses; responses that don't contribute much overall to the forum?

This is simply speculation, those who have been here longer, mod's in particular would know better. Half of my posting this was to increase my post count anyway.  ;)

You really are an anarchist.

The proper term, as coined here (http://www.happyatheistforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=7480.0), is "post-whoring."

And yeah, there are some new members that will post just to make that number on the left reach 50. But, in the meantime, the natural side effect is that they get to know the community, the style, and the overall "feel" of the forum while approaching that post count.

And that, is what it was intended for.

Quote from: ThinkAnarchy on May 22, 2011, 08:49:55 AM
I'm glad I found this before asking. I was just wondering why I couldn't respond to a post on the politics board.

Serious question though.

Wouldn't this contribute to more trolling? Or I suppose the more appropriate term here would be spamming. Does this policy not cause a whole bunch of useless responses; responses that don't contribute much overall to the forum?

This is simply speculation, those who have been here longer, mod's in particular would know better. Half of my posting this was to increase my post count anyway.  ;)

It works, and it doesn't contribute to more trolling or spamming. And we watch for people who make useless posts simply to get a count of 50. I'll happily add to the required count of posters who try to rack up their count with junk.  :)

if the policy were not more beneficial than not having it do you think we'd keep it implemented?

Quote from: Whitney on May 22, 2011, 04:15:16 PM
if the policy were not more beneficial than not having it do you think we'd keep it implemented?

It's possible it could have improved the trolling aspect while harming something unforeseen. The net gain could still be positive while only being slightly beneficial.

I also saw you ask about the location of the message about the 50 post rule and I did not see it when I first logged in. Since it was under the Meeting Place board description I never read it. The Meeting Place seemed self explanatory, so I felt no need to read the description. It could be in a different place though, seeing as I'm one of those people who sometimes tries to walk through "Out of Order" doors when the sign is at eye level.

As I said in my initial post though, the mods and admins would see the results far better than a new member.

Quote from: ThinkAnarchy on May 22, 2011, 11:11:25 PM
I also saw you ask about the location of the message about the 50 post rule and I did not see it when I first logged in. Since it was under the Meeting Place board description I never read it. The Meeting Place seemed self explanatory, so I felt no need to read the description. It could be in a different place though, seeing as I'm one of those people who sometimes tries to walk through "Out of Order" doors when the sign is at eye level.

Since that question was asked it has also been posted into the rules and user registration agreement  ;)

Quote from: ThinkAnarchy on May 22, 2011, 11:11:25 PM

Quote from: Whitney on May 22, 2011, 04:15:16 PM
if the policy were not more beneficial than not having it do you think we'd keep it implemented?

It's possible it could have improved the trolling aspect while harming something unforeseen. The net gain could still be positive while only being slightly beneficial.

I also saw you ask about the location of the message about the 50 post rule and I did not see it when I first logged in. Since it was under the Meeting Place board description I never read it. The Meeting Place seemed self explanatory, so I felt no need to read the description. It could be in a different place though, seeing as I'm one of those people who sometimes tries to walk through "Out of Order" doors when the sign is at eye level.

As I said in my initial post though, the mods and admins would see the results far better than a new member.

"If it works don't fix it" The rule has only been around for a few months and it's bloody brilliant. The quality of the new members is high and the troll count has dropped to a virtual zero. So far so good :)

I don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

Quote from: thequestioner on June 07, 2011, 09:56:04 PMI don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

Wow, was it always like this or are there more people with polls recently?

Quote from: thequestioner on June 07, 2011, 09:56:04 PM
I don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

great...that means the policy is working...

Quote from: Davin on June 07, 2011, 10:17:00 PM

Quote from: thequestioner on June 07, 2011, 09:56:04 PMI don't like it.  The only reason I joined was so that I could do a poll and I needed only atheists.

Wow, was it always like this or are there more people with polls recently?

It isn't infrequent..one time we had a whole grade school class (i'm assuming a private school due to it being a religion class) asking us the same questions and generally acting like idiots (so the school's ip was banned).

on google we are on the first page (usually top listing) for "atheist forum" so we're probably typically the first place that gets hit up for survey requests.

I like this rule, I hope nobody gets discouraged.

I was also wondering this  ??? It's nice to have a help desk taking care of all queries.