Search First

[Amacythe]

On my forum I reset newbies to 1+ posts.  All new members with zero posts can see only one forum (set through permissions).  I would suggest something similar here, to make sure that all new members read a thread asking them to search prior to posting duplicate questions.  Have new members "sign" by posting in that thread.

Ok, maybe I'm being a little selfish... I feel guilty when I post to a newbie asking them to search.  I know I am not nearly as patient and polite as [Unknown] is in these circumstances.

[Anguz]

What a great idea to make new members read a particular topic. I'll certainly use it in my forum. Thank you!

[Fizzy]

That sounds so simple ... it's brilliant !

[Oldiesmann]

Still doesn't mean they'll actually read it, but there's a good chance they will since it's the only thing they can do at first. Nice idea

[andrea]

There are here also people with many post who do not search first. In addition there are people who make lots of nonsense posts for post count.

I am against any rewarding of post counts, because all which is done for post count is bad.

[Anguz]

There are here also people with many post who do not search first. In addition there are people who make lots of nonsense posts for post count.

I am against any rewarding of post counts, because all which is done for post count is bad.

I totally agree with you. I had to remove the count from my YaBB SE forum back when I had it, because of all the spam the members would do to raise it. That's why I was so happy with the idea suggested here. It was the first practical use I found for the post count.

[TarantinoArchives]

There are here also people with many post who do not search first. In addition there are people who make lots of nonsense posts for post count.

I am against any rewarding of post counts, because all which is done for post count is bad.

I think this is a big delemma in modern bulletin board communites. neither post count nor karma is a really effective way to award or promote members. I think there should be some kind of mix between post count, time registered, amount of activity and so on. Something like a communitibilty-index :-)

I think that's something to ponder about. Post count alone doesnt do the job. And I switched off the Karma thing just a vew days ago because it just doesn't have the desired effect neither. People just start ******ing about their few points lost, and in my forum of over 2500 members, only a fistful is even really AWARE of things they can do in the forum....

[RCHawaii]

Using user levels is way under-rated. You can give special access to areas other users cant even touch by using user levels. So if you want to treat your more sincere, giving, productive members, just put them in a certain group and only give them access to the easter egg goodies. BBS' have worked on user-levels for many years quite effectively imho. Or you of course have the potion to set it so a certain post count awards members as well, but this would depend in my view on quality not quantity.

You can also use the Karma function to allow other users to rate each other. Eventually you should know if there are those who have been appreciated and show it in their ratings. Nothings fallible, but with these options I'd say there's plenty of ways to reward members.

I started with some Ascii Wildcat BBS software(Pre-Wildcat actually),  only those members who I wanted to would have access to games, drop to dos programs,  quicksilver news feeds, etc they liked. When I upgraded to RoboBBS by Seth Hamilton of Canada then to His RoboFX (The first Graphical BBS on the web) it made things even easier. Todays packages especially SMF are so detailed as to what you can and can't do, you have many options you really didn't have then. And we didn't use secure html and php either.

Food for thought-You have to put the options to work for you.

And in keeping with the topic, I think setting a user level to force reading of policy statements is a great idea and could obviously have other uses.