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How do I start a private conversation?

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BuddhistDracula

BuddhistDracula

Count
Hello,


I'm new here and... how do I start a private conversation? Someone has started one with me, but I can't start any by myself. I've already heard that you need 10 posts to do so. I have 15.


CountDracula
 
The use of the rule is to ensure that no bots or rather nasty people begin spamming advertisements, malicious links and other such things. It's all designed to keep you happy, basically.
 
If it wasn't bad stuff'd be happening all the time. Just leave it to the pros, they know how to handle this kinda stuff.
 
It's fine. This site has lasted this long without a hitch, nothing bad is gonna happen. You just gotta wait one day and then you can PM people.
 
CountDracula said:
@The Dark Wizard @Ohm ONI I doubt that there are less spammers here than in other forums I know. It's not too hard to get 10 posts, and then all you have to do is to wait for a day.
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Some sections of the site do not count for posts.


If you want to get 10 posts, you'll have to do meaningful posts, and not just obviously spamming which gets picked up by reports and other tools, within the 24 hour timeframe, our very large staff will have banned your account, cleared all posts, etc all with one click.


The 24 hour time frame is for us to have enough time to act :P . We actually don't suffer from a lot of spam even though the site usually has 400-500 people online daily and rising. 
@CountDracula


Like how you just replied to a bunch of introduction threads to increase your post count. You just joined the site, why would you need to send PMs to any one :D ? If you do, you can wait the 24 hours.
 
@The Dark Wizard If I wanted to, I could act like someone who really is into RPs and thus could make 10 meaningful posts. That wouldn't be a problem for me.


A forum I often write in sometimes has even more users online at the same time. They don't have such a rule and also don't have a lot of spammers.


I didn't do that to increase my post count. I did that because that's what people do in all the other forums I'm in. This one is an exception; not too many people do it here. And if you've just joined a forum, you're happy when people say hello.


About the PMs... have you thought about that I might know someone here? Or that I might want to send a link to someone? Or that I might want to get in contact with someone?
 
The site has had issues in the past with private message spam from people making alternative accounts and other types of acts. Those kind of behaviors are discouraged from people doing it just to get back at some-people or by advertisers (who are different than spam bots because they are people) because there is a waiting period before accounts can post and because you have to put some effort behind an account.


Sometimes catching these problems can be difficult because we respect user's rights to privacy in their inbox. So these measures were done in response to many complaints that were reported to the Staff.


Granted, it is still in a trial period and we do welcome your input. If you can provide possibly alternatives we would like hear them so that we can improve the experience on the site. Of course all changes would have to discussed by Staff members but the requirements might be lowered or otherwise altered if a proper balance can be struck. As it is all a balancing act, if that makes sense.


Nevertheless the main function of the forum is still open to every user upon registeration, that is not always the case on every forum, your limitations only come in areas that are 1) extras and 2) have been abused in the past. We hope you understand at least our reasoning behind these actions. Like I said though if you have any specific solutions, please share them with us as we would love to hear about them.
 
@Miz I understand your reasoning but still I feel very disadvantaged by that rule for the above mentioned reasons. If I've got to say something to someone, I don't wanna wait for a whole day to do so. And yes, I've got a solution. The forum I've already been talking about has some kind of warning, saying, "This user has just signed up. Please report him/her if he/she should be spamming." Or at least something similar to that. And this seems to work, since the forum has more than 80,000 users and really not many spamming issues. I, for example, have never seen a spammer there, thus having been active for 1 1/2 years by now and being online almost every day. Maybe even the thing with the posts would be enough to scare off plenty of spammers.
 
CountDracula said:
@Miz I understand your reasoning but still I feel very disadvantaged by that rule for the above mentioned reasons. If I've got to say something to someone, I don't wanna wait for a whole day to do so. And yes, I've got a solution. The forum I've already been talking about has some kind of warning, saying, "This user has just signed up. Please report him/her if he/she should be spamming." Or at least something similar to that. And this seems to work, since the forum has more than 80,000 users and really not many spamming issues. I, for example, have never seen a spammer there, thus having been active for 1 1/2 years by now and being online almost every day.
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Hm, we might try that but the report button is already advertised as is and is specially marked to be red. We will have a discussion about the matter though to see if there are some alterations we can do to improve your experience.


Nevertheless it is important to remark that while other sites do perform certain tasks differently than us, every community is also different and has to be managed in certain ways. Like I said though, this is a new a feature so it might be changed. There will be some serious talks about it in future. Unfortunately that doesn't change the system for you, as it will remain the same in the meantime. However all of your permissions will become available in roughly 15 hours according to your registration time.


If you have any further questions about the Conversations system or the site please let us know.
 
Miz said:
Unfortunately that doesn't change the system for you, as it will remain the same in the meantime. However all of your permissions will become available in roughly 15 hours according to your registration time.
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Yeah, I'm afraid so.


Btw, I know this "we are different from other forums" type of argumentation quite well. Almost every forum uses that. Some even claim to be better. But if they all use the same argumentation style, they can't really be, I think. In my opinion, admins should listen to criticism and be able to deal with it. You're a good role model for that :) in most of the other forums, they don't even listen to you. Sometimes, they even laugh at you for your criticism instead.
 
CountDracula said:
@The Dark Wizard @Ohm ONI I doubt that there are less spammers here than in other forums I know. It's not too hard to get 10 posts, and then all you have to do is to wait for a day.
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I can assure you that after running this site for 5 years, there is FAR LESS spammers on this site compared to many others. The method behind this is simple, most spammers you see are bot generated. Most sites spammed are indexed based on difficulty to spam. If registration is difficult, requirements are set forth, & a website can remove your existence in the click of one button (which this one can), you are indexed as "difficult". This site is certainly listed as difficult in most directories so that alone reduces spam but 50%. Once a manual spammer registers & see's they can not post links, they move on to the next site so not to return.


In 5 years I think I removed a total of 3 users for spam. Out of all 3 of them, not one had links & simply posted random garbled text. Removal took less than 10 seconds & I moved on with my life.


As simplistic as the system may seem, it is VERY effective. Although other security functions may have been altered since my leave, there was other measures in line as well that caught known emails, ips, etc before registration.
 
CountDracula said:
@GgAcE I do understand this registration thing and this link posting thing, but I still don't like that I can't send PMs.
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In the aforementioned statements it's not something that staff WANTS to do but it's a deterrent. In my every day function I don't WANT to place rules on when someone needs to be in work but if I don't then that is taken advantage of. Unfortunately the PM system was similar. As much as I don't like to have requirements like that either, it's something that was forced upon the staff.


I no longer represent the staff members however as a legacy member (the first member to ever register on this site), I have seen the needs & requirements for such actions. They suck... I know. It's the unfortunate reality of hosting a largely active site of this genre.


I hope once this period is over for you that you enjoy the rest of what the site has in store.


Best of luck on your RpN journey.


Regards,


~Gg
 
CountDracula said:
@GgAcE I hope I will, too, but don't hope that I'll stop fighting for a change in that.
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Fight the good fight sir if that's the route you so choose. I am merely here as the neutral party at this point. I can't make changes nor do I have any permissions that you don't have. Just wanted to drop my 2cents.


Regards,


~Gg
 
I just want to add that the 10-post rule is only new to RPnation. Those of us who came from RPzone were plenty used to it and I saw no complaints in the several months I was there before the merge.
 
Ya, noted that. However, I can't recall if we had the 24-hour rule or not. If we did, there were absolutely no complaints and I never noticed it myself.
 
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