Moderator approval for new user ID's?

Status
Not open for further replies.

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,446
126
Have we ever thought of adding moderator approval to new user ID's to post? It might cut down on the amount of spam that we're getting in the forums like the ongoing General Hardware phone spam.
 

ViRGE

Elite Member, Moderator Emeritus
Oct 9, 1999
31,516
167
106
The primary purpose of these forums is to offer technical help and discussion (social forums are just gravy). That's not something we can do if registration requires human approval. Those users who are here looking for help are going to want to be able to register and post right away.

Requiring human approval would definitely cut down on the spam, no question. But it would also greatly harm the growth and utility of this forum.
 

RossMAN

Grand Nagus
Feb 24, 2000
78,837
340
136
The primary purpose of these forums is to offer technical help and discussion (social forums are just gravy). That's not something we can do if registration requires human approval. Those users who are here looking for help are going to want to be able to register and post right away.

White country or turkey gravy?
 

Dude111

Golden Member
Jan 19, 2010
1,495
5
81
mmmmmmm country gravy is good!!!

First time I had it was on an OPEN FACED TURKEY SANDWICH.. I had asked for a special order @ Applebee's (They dont usually make open faced turkey sandwiches) and when my sandwich came it had this WHITE GRAVY all over it.. (Hadnt ever seen it) and I said to myself "What the hell is this??" (Expecting the dark stuff) and I tried it AND LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!

I guess Applebee's DOES NOT HAVE DARK GRAVY.. (@ least the one I went to)
 

Rakehellion

Lifer
Jan 15, 2013
12,181
35
91
And there's no way to tell if a new user is a spammer.

A better idea is to limit the number of threads a user can create in a certain timespan.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,739
452
126
Not having been a mod I don't really know how much work getting rid of spam posts usually is, but deleting all threads for a known spam user sounds relatively easy as long as the forum software allows you to erase a user and all their threads at once.

The work to handle the spam seems to be less than the work required to manually approve every single new user. Instead of only having to intervene IF the account is a spammer, you'd be forcing the staff to intervene regardless of if it's a spammer or not. Sounds a lot worse than having a couple spam accounts every once in a while.

Plus what Virge said
 

Gillbot

Lifer
Jan 11, 2001
28,830
17
81
Not having been a mod I don't really know how much work getting rid of spam posts usually is, but deleting all threads for a known spam user sounds relatively easy as long as the forum software allows you to erase a user and all their threads at once.

The work to handle the spam seems to be less than the work required to manually approve every single new user. Instead of only having to intervene IF the account is a spammer, you'd be forcing the staff to intervene regardless of if it's a spammer or not. Sounds a lot worse than having a couple spam accounts every once in a while.

Plus what Virge said

The bolded above, yes.
 

stinger608

Senior member
Mar 6, 2009
950
2
81
Not having been a mod I don't really know how much work getting rid of spam posts usually is, but deleting all threads for a known spam user sounds relatively easy as long as the forum software allows you to erase a user and all their threads at once.

The work to handle the spam seems to be less than the work required to manually approve every single new user. Instead of only having to intervene IF the account is a spammer, you'd be forcing the staff to intervene regardless of if it's a spammer or not. Sounds a lot worse than having a couple spam accounts every once in a while.

Plus what Virge said

The bolded above, yes.

Being an administrator on one site and a moderator on two forums I will concur with Gillbot.

A site this size would take an army to approve or disregard new users!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.