New Signature and Link Restrictions

Effective immediately, to help keep the quality of ozzu high and to deter members signing up simply to post low quality content, we have now limited accounts that can post URLs or that can have signatures. To be able to post links or have a signature you will need to be a member at ozzu for at least 90 days and also have at least 150 posts. Until both criteria are met links and signatures will not be allowed for your account.

Good call,

End of spammers..

I best make that..possibly, but Joebert is on to it too.

S

You might want to update ozzu rules to reflect the change, chief. Just looked and didn't see it yet.

Updated.

Hey can we count writing a tutorial as a bonus 50 posts/30 days? I have a whole list of totally classic youtube clips just wasting away here now...

In the tutorial writer's forum that restriction does not exist anymore, so you can post the tutorial there and work/edit on it there. Once finalized it can be moved to the appropriate tutorial forum that is displayed to the public and the links will stay intact.

Right now the restriction system I put in place is very simple, so I could not do something like you requested. Down the road I may do something though as far as calculating the "trust" of a user. However the workaround I mentioned above I think will be sufficient.

I understand the reason behind this, but isn't 90 days/150 posts a little bit too much ? Even 10 days/15 posts limitation would drive away spammers, yet allow people like me write meaningful posts and have a normal signature.

Please remember that some new users are real humans, not necessarily bots.

Such a small requirement wouldn't really serve the same purpose. If we were to lower the requirements to something more like 10/15, we'd only hurt ourselves. We'd likely see an increase of pointless and hasty posts where spammers reached for the 15-post limit.

It weeds out flakes. Flakes being people who look at the limit as a goal they have to get to so they can drop their links and then move on.

Posting on the forum is work to them and for some reason they believe the advertisement-disguised-as-content is "valuable content" and that they deserve a link. Those are the people who need to be paying for advertising space because that is what they're looking for.

Links in posts and signatures are basically a "word of mouth" space. Raising the barrier to entry keeps it from being "free advertising" space.

Basically it helps ensure members are here for the right reasons. This was a major problem here before we implemented this. Too much content posted that was pretty much completely useless.

I really have not sat down and thought about what this really means, i saw the benefits initially too but it never really sank in how good this is for the site.

As you wish. Just remember that this measure will also drive away a certain percentage of new normal users. Any it would be really useful to get a meaningful error message rather than just a "you are not authorized to define a signature".

I appreciate your concerns vasyapupkin42. It seems either way we go on this we can lose someone. In the past we have lost valuable members due to the degrading quality of the forums. I know this because the members who said that they were leaving told me their reasons behind it via PM. Members who are here to learn and help others get tired of multiple meaningless posts that are posted by members with the motive of really just trying to get their link some exposure.

It may be a gamble, but forums like webmaster world have not had signatures for years and they are doing very well. Forums like digitalpoint are overrun with link spam, have you ever read through their forums? It is horrible. We aren't taking signatures away completely, just limiting the ability for new members to utlitize it until its clear they are here for the right reasons. While it is true that some new members are willing to participate and post meaningful content if they can have some free advertising space in their signatures, I would say 99 out of 100 members in this group are just horrible, posting short one liners over and over.

I know for many members you might not realize how much spam / junk posts the moderators remove on a daily basis from ozzu. I believe this amount has dropped considerably already since this went into affect which makes our jobs easier as well. It completely removes the incentive for spammers if they cannot get their link out thus leaving ozzu with members that are really just here to be part of our community.

I stand with Bigwebmaster and the other moderators on the logic behind this implementation, and already see the benefit manifested. However, I do agree that a better reason might be given as you suggest. Perhaps even a link to the signature rules that explain the time limit.

Good rule. But I have been a member for over 5 years and have over 450 posts. Now I come back from a hiatus (somewhat long, I admit) and my signature is not showing.