CHANGES TO USER PERMISSIONS

[Guest samanthads]

i have only been chatting to one person sent 7 messages to them and cant send any more to them as a new member. is it a message limit or conversation limit.

i have to say i love this site but would like clarity is there a messages sent per day limit as well as a number of conversations started 

like mitch posting as a guest as cant reply other wise 

[rawTOP]

I've upped the message limit from 3 to 5 for new members, and complained to the software developer about how the limit was implemented. The admin interface says the limit is "Conversations allowed to start per day", which implies that you should be able to reply to any message sent to you. And once a conversation is started you should be able to send an unlimited number of messages to that person. But based on your comments that's clearly not the case. I've also suggested that messages to admins and moderators not be included in the caps.

[Guest BritBottom]

On 11/5/2019 at 12:10 PM, rawTOP said:

As far as ratings, I'm thinking of putting New Members down to 0. If they don't know the feature exists, then they won't miss it. And the idea behind ratings is that established members (who define the community) say what's good and bad.

The new restrictions and the above have killed it for me, I feel wholly unwelcome and have requested my account deleted.  I would be grateful if this could be done as soon as possible please.

[mitch]

6 hours ago, rawTOP said:

I've upped the message limit from 3 to 5 for new members, and complained to the software developer about how the limit was implemented. The admin interface says the limit is "Conversations allowed to start per day", which implies that you should be able to reply to any message sent to you. And once a conversation is started you should be able to send an unlimited number of messages to that person. But based on your comments that's clearly not the case. I've also suggested that messages to admins and moderators not be included in the caps.

Thank you for working on that.  Hopefully all of the kinks (no pun intended) will be worked out soon!!!

[NLbear]

11 hours ago, BritBottom said:

The new restrictions and the above have killed it for me, I feel wholly unwelcome and have requested my account deleted.  I would be grateful if this could be done as soon as possible please.

Don't go. I don't know what the "threshold" is for moving up from New Member to Member but looking at others you are probably very close to that (in terms of # of posts and Likes). Would be a shame to loose you as a contributor.

[fuckyouraw777]

1. People don't like change (whatever their sexual pleasures happen to be);
2. Sites that implement arbitrary and unexplained rules to participate in order to avoid spam penalise everyone except the spammers;
3. And a corollary to (2) is that they can suffer short-term membership loss or decline depending on how the rules are implemented or explained (or not explained).

And (3) can snowball, no pun intended, into a permanent loss and decline.

Somehow having been a member for 8 years (I've been around longer than that, by the way), 17 up hearts, 21 upvotes, a LOL face and giving 2 reactions makes me a "New Member".

Unfortunately, once enough established members either up & leave and/or the rules become too difficult and opaque to navigate for those who join and maybe the content dies then there is the real possibility that the community dies - and if that dies, so does the site visits - and they move onto the next place.

I would hazard a guess that the Internet is awash with graveyards of sites that have attempted to tackle spam but killed their community instead; or sites that have tried to encourage the massive communities that lurk but do not necessarily participate, to participate, only to find that they go lurk elsewhere.

I don't particularly care too much but I do care just enough to actually post here. Then again, why listen to me? I've only been around 8 years and am still new.

 

 

[rawTOP]

2 hours ago, fuckyouraw777 said:

1. People don't like change (whatever their sexual pleasures happen to be);
2. Sites that implement arbitrary and unexplained rules to participate in order to avoid spam penalise everyone except the spammers;
3. And a corollary to (2) is that they can suffer short-term membership loss or decline depending on how the rules are implemented or explained (or not explained).

And (3) can snowball, no pun intended, into a permanent loss and decline.

Somehow having been a member for 8 years (I've been around longer than that, by the way), 17 up hearts, 21 upvotes, a LOL face and giving 2 reactions makes me a "New Member".

Unfortunately, once enough established members either up & leave and/or the rules become too difficult and opaque to navigate for those who join and maybe the content dies then there is the real possibility that the community dies - and if that dies, so does the site visits - and they move onto the next place.

I would hazard a guess that the Internet is awash with graveyards of sites that have attempted to tackle spam but killed their community instead; or sites that have tried to encourage the massive communities that lurk but do not necessarily participate, to participate, only to find that they go lurk elsewhere.

I don't particularly care too much but I do care just enough to actually post here. Then again, why listen to me? I've only been around 8 years and am still new.

In your case it's a matter of how people have rated your content. Often I see reputations that are 2x the number of posts. Instead you're 0.5x the number of posts. So ratings are your weak spot. Basically not enough members have vouched for you.

I'm pretty sure the spammers are trying to get people to follow links that put malware on people's computers. It's serious and can't be ignored.

That said, the tools I have to control the situation with spammers are limited. I'm doing what I can, but I see the problems just as much as you do. It's a balance.

[AsiaCuck]

Hello RawTop and Management - change is scary and uncomfortable and can feel like you’re being demoted. However, as RT said fears of trolls and malware and inactive accounts being hacked glad forced them into taking these steps. Go check out Doublelist and see if you can find a human being - it’s like the Nateix over there.

So, while I can say that I’ve been a huge fan of BZ for the past five years, I have to admit I’ve had more than a few accounts, and the participation goes in high bursts of posts to nothing for awhile based upon my next Adderall prescription, and there would be no way to check it out using my current account as it was only established within the past few months. Previous accounts all were based on a variation of “Cherry” and “wet “hole” “dripping hole” “luv hole” etc. and they weren’t abandoned just the email account created for each one was long gone so I couldn’t recover them.

long story short I support these moves and thank RT and the others responsible for keeping things safe around here and looking out for the long term success. I’m keeping my account from now on, so here I am.
 

Thanks!https://assets.s3xstatic.com/bz/uploads/monthly_2019_08/51FF7584-7F32-4B0A-8015-EA86BF00F97E.thumb.jpeg.f9a18388f649ba009a3fa08c3082d1c2.jpeg 

AsiaCuck

[rawTOP]

OK, based on the recent comments I've made some changes. In particular I've added another member level so it's now…

1. New Members
2. Junior Members (new)
3. Members
4. Senior Members (previously "Trusted Members")

Hopefully "Senior Members" doesn't sound like old people, but it balances Junior Members conceptually. So people like @fuckyouraw777 and @AsiaCuckare now Junior Members. "Junior Members" have more abilities than the old "New Members" – it should feel more like it used to for them when everyone was in "Members".

The bar to get from "New" to "Junior" is much lower than it previously was from "New" to "Members". With the standard path it's half the time period, and then there just needs to be a little public activity, and a little rating of that activity by other members. There's also an accelerated path for people who post a fair amount of content and it's particularly well-received.

Since it's easier to get out of "New Members" I've restricted their abilities even more. Fewer messages, no ratings, etc. If you're in that group your job is to prove you belong here and that you'll make a positive contribution to the BZ community.

 

[Riverfk]

8 minutes ago, rawTOP said:

OK, based on the recent comments I've made some changes. In particular I've added another member level so it's now…

1. New Members
2. Junior Members (new)
3. Members
4. Senior Members (previously "Trusted Members")

Hopefully "Senior Members" doesn't sound like old people, but it balances Junior Members conceptually. So people like @fuckyouraw777 and @AsiaCuckare now Junior Members. "Junior Members" have more abilities than the old "New Members" – it should feel more like it used to for them when everyone was in "Members".

The bar to get from "New" to "Junior" is much lower than it previously was from "New" to "Members". With the standard path it's half the time period, and then there just needs to be a little public activity, and a little rating of that activity by other members. There's also an accelerated path for people who post a fair amount of content and it's particularly well-received.

Since it's easier to get out of "New Members" I've restricted their abilities even more. Fewer messages, no ratings, etc. If you're in that group your job is to prove you belong here and that you'll make a positive contribution to the BZ community.

 

How about "Varsity Members" for those who have an AARP card but don't want to admit it, hehe.

[Ranger Rick]

Weird being a member in good standing considering how many forums I've been banned from.

[Pozlover1]

On 11/7/2019 at 11:36 AM, Riverfk said:

How about "Varsity Members" for those who have an AARP card but don't want to admit it, hehe.

We are the timeless classics

[Versdc]

I’m not able to rate any posts, and haven’t been able to for a few days now. New member should allow me to at least like something out there. 

[rawTOP]

9 hours ago, Versdc said:

I’m not able to rate any posts, and haven’t been able to for a few days now. New member should allow me to at least like something out there. 

It's not appropriate for new members to rate things. Ratings are supposed to reflect the opinions of the community, and new members haven't proven themselves to be part of the community.

[Guest POZitiveBoyZ]

On 11/4/2019 at 2:25 PM, rawTOP said:

I've changed the user groups up and it makes a difference to what you can do on the site. Basically "members" has been split into 3 groups:

1. New Members
2. Members
3. Trusted Members

New members can do very little on the site. They can only send a few messages, they can only post a few posts. They can rate only a few items. "New" is defined by a few things – length of time since you joined, how many posts you've made, and how those posts have been rated. Being low on any of those will make you a "New Member".

Members are those who have been here a while, done a bunch of posts, and had them well-received.

Trusted members are people who have been here a long time, done a lot of posts, and had them well-received. If a trusted member stops being active on the site eventually they will get demoted down to member, but actively participating will get them back to Trusted Member status.

Notice that "well-received" is a criteria in all the statuses. This means that down voting a post can slow a person down in achieving the next highest status. So those of you who are long-time members with the ability to do a fair number of ratings, please use that to slow down potentially problematic members.

As you go up in status you can

• Post more posts
• Rate more things
• Upload bigger images and files
• Have more galleries with more images
• Have more blogs

In addition, moderators will be more lenient as your status goes up. This will be especially true for Trusted Members – the points they'll be given will be lower, and hence the consequences less.

One change that's been made across the board is that everyone can now delete their own images, galleries and blogs. (I finally got past a problem that was preventing me access to the settings that control that). That will reduce the workload on moderators.

Good things. But may I ask you to checking out of the fake accounts that registered every day without some reasons for being a real members of the community. I guess there will be a good enough to make a stronger registration process and clean the community of the fake and ghosts accounts