Over the past few months, several people (including me) have suggested limiting the number of posts made by non-Pawn Stars. This has been met with some resistance, largely because there are a number of very reasonable and active people on the site who have, for whatever reason, not become Pawn Stars.

How about this: Since most people who troll and are stupid tend to lose interest in a matter of minutes or hours at best, I propose limiting the number of posts to 10/day for new members, which could be defined as anyone who has made less 250 moves or been members for a week. Anyone who wants to continue posting after making that many moves or coming back after a week is very likely not going to be a moron.

Also, most recently, someone circumvented being banned by making four or so different usernames. This could be avoided by limiting the number of new users from an IP to one a day. There could be some sort of message to email a moderator for the occasional and unlikely possibility that two different people will be trying to make two different accounts.

What do you think, Russ? RHP Community?

Nemesio

I was just about to post a similar idea myself. Simple, direct, and probably effective: nobody under a certain number of moves (say 100? 200?) can post at all.

I'll paste this here also, from general forums....


I was thinking a simple one also.... I don't think it should be based on your number of chess moves... Some poeple have honest questions they might need to ask in the forums before 100 moves...

I was thinking if they sign up for a new account, RHP should give them their first password... and email it to them.

They check the email, and sign on... and can change the password if they want.

Now, if you make 9 user names, you need to have 9 email addresses.... I think I've only got a good 3 or 5 I could use...

Anyway, that would have stopped the crappy problem today, no problem.


P-

That last post gets my rec. I would still limit the number of posts to 10 before 250 moves or one week of membership. Newbies do have legitimate questions (most of which are answered in the help stuff, but still we shouldn't discourage them). If newbies have more than 10 questions in 24 hours, then they are just being lazy...the site isn't that hard.

Nemesio

Originally posted by nemesio
That last post gets my rec. I would still limit the number of posts to 10 before 250 moves or one week of membership. Newbies do have legitimate questions (most of which are answered in the help stuff, but still we shouldn't discourage t ...[text shortened]... n they are just being lazy...the site isn't that hard.

Nemesio

or you could just limit posting to just the help forum

Originally posted by opsoccergurl11
or you could just limit posting to just the help forum

Originally posted by Phlabibit
I'll paste this here also, from general forums....


I was thinking a simple one also.... I don't think it should be based on your number of chess moves... Some poeple have honest questions they might need to ask in the forums before ...[text shortened]... would have stopped the crappy problem today, no problem.


P-

paste-o-tated from G forms.....

Yes, but at least it will slow them down... as it is now a troll can pop in and out in seconds.... I'm just trying to make it harder for the guy who comes in and acts 'crappy', gets banned... and is back in 40 seconds.

Don't teach the trolls to troll better!

Probably best is comobonations of all ideas offered so far!

P-

Originally posted by Rabella
That might just lead them to post off-topic stuff to the help forum, 'Yeah I know this would belong to the Debates forum but I cannot post there and this is really important'

As one can't really stop the troll, Phlab is right that slow-em down is the route to go.

emails and ISP numbers can all be masked by those that know how, but most don't and so it would hassle most potential trolls.

consider also:
'newbie' status: (first 2 weeks or after 250 moves)
Can send 10 messages / day (either by rhp internal or rhp email)
max. 10 posts / day
Can start one thread per day max. If they start a thread: it goes in a 'to be mod-ed' bin where it will only become an active thread once a mod (eventually) OKs it. They'll get a message to that effect.
Support a "delete all" button a mod can use on a newbie: deletes all posts irrespective (so mods don't have to hunt them down)
Allow the mods a "suspend newbie posting / messages" so as soon as a new troll goes active, the mods can stop them rather than needing Russ / Chrismo to step in.

that gives more than enough leeway to actively post, disappears after 2 weeks, and inhibits a bit of trolling, but not much really.

Originally posted by Toe
As one can't really stop the troll, Phlab is right that slow-em down is the route to go.

emails and ISP numbers can all be masked by those that know how, but most don't and so it would hassle most potential trolls.

consider also:
'newbie' status: (first 2 weeks or after 250 moves)
Can send 10 messages / day (either by rhp internal or rhp email)
max. ...[text shortened]... actively post, disappears after 2 weeks, and inhibits a bit of trolling, but not much really.

Here's my concern about this last idea:

The number of PEOPLE doing obnoxious posts is small, even if the number of posts isn't. But, the number of new people joining and posting in ernest might require more moderation than the trollers.

And, imagine being new and being confused (c'mon, you were there once). Imagine you are having a problem and you post, only to have to wait 5, 15, or even 60 minutes before your post even shows up, much less answered. That would discourage people from using the site.

Whatever solution is chosen for the trolling problem, it has to 1) Make it hard for trollers to be obnoxious, while 2) Still allows newbies to interact in a reasonable way.

Nemesio

Originally posted by nemesio
Here's my concern about this last idea:

The number of PEOPLE doing obnoxious posts is small, even if the number of posts isn't. But, the number of new people joining and posting in ernest might require more moderation than the trollers.

And, imagine being new and being confused (c'mon, you were there once). Imagine you are having a problem and you ...[text shortened]... lers to be obnoxious, while 2) Still allows newbies to interact in a reasonable way.

Nemesio

It isn't just new members who abuse the forum. Pawnstars and others who have been around long enough to know better are just as guilty, in my opinion.

Marc