Should I Restrict The Ability For New Members To Personal Message?

[Steve Herschbach]

12 hours ago, David N. said:

New member?  Check.

Never posted (until now)?  Check.

Considering making a first post asking what kind of rocks are these?  Another check, but I guess it would be a second post now.

I even received a PM yesterday that was probably the scammer.  It was gone before I could log in and read it, but I could tell from the email notification that it was likely a scam.

I not a scammer, nor a sleeper, but I am likely to mostly be a lurker.  The more active posters here know so much more than me that I doubt I'll have much to say other than ask questions, and even then I can usually find more information to read up on before asking than I have time to fully go through.  That said, I can understand forbidding new members from sending PM until they have first posted, but I would think a lower threshold could serve the same purpose.  Another forum I'm on stills allows new members to send PMs without making posts, but will ban anyone trying to sell via PM without prior posts.  This was due to a significant number of new members who all had a "friend George in Ohio" that seems to have everything anyone wants to buy at unbelievably good prices.

If you do clamp down on us, I would ask that you at least allow a couple photos.  It might take me a year or more to get to the 10 post requirement to find out what these rocks are.

I am not doing anything at this point, just looking for suggestions, and I appreciate your comments. Welcome to the forum.

The software is robust but it only allows so much. Most stuff, like posting photos is all or nothing, so it's not a matter of allowing just two photos. But spamming the forum with photos is not the problem really,  and that was just an example, one that I would probably forgo.

Forum membership is not required to be a lurker. Anyone can view the forum without joining. I am not the normal forum owner. Having members purely for the sake of having an inflated membership number is not something I seek. I'm not trying to sell ads to anyone, so that number serves no purpose. The forum exists for one reason only - good drama free conversation between decent humans with the goal of enlightening and informing. Anyone who is joining and not contributing to that goal does not need to be a member, and so this last year I began deleting accounts older than 90 days where the new member has not posted, and will continue to do so. I may take that down to 30 days.

[Steve Herschbach]

16 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

Steve

They're getting trickier !🤔

Links to a couple of sites we use on my forums to weed out the scammers.

(which is down to almost none now that we took your lead and deleted the zero posters.

THX for the idea ! )

We now require 1 post within a month and 10 posts before allowing links.  

All newbs have to be approved before posting access is granted.

(I think the 10 post minimum was the most effective part of our effort.) 

 

Also , The vast majority of our spammers have (had) an email ending in .ru  

I have a member that was traveling in Russia and I kept allowing them in , thinking he was recruiting new members........not anymore..I  purged their sorry butts.     I just had a thought that their internet  might be restricted right now too ?

 

The first is an IP lookup that gives several locations . I found that I developed a feel for this after seeing patterns and repeated providers over the first few months.

https://www.iplocation.net/ 

This one my IT girl found and uses. I used it only once but she said she liked it.

https://scamalytics.com/ip/api/pricing

15 hours ago, Gold Seeker said:

I use the following site.

https://www.stopforumspam.com/

I employ commercial spam email and ip filtering or the task would be overwhelming. However, spammers create endless new accounts so there are always some that pass the filters, and those are the issue. I've avoided having to give manual approval to each new member, but that certainly is an option at this point, since I am manually reviewing and watching them anyway.

This discussion has allowed me to focus however. What is the goal here? Why did I set this forum up? It was to attract the kind of people I want personally to hang out with. Drama free people who just want to talk about gold prospecting or metal detecting. And to help people who have questions about those subjects. That's it, plain and simple.

People who join and never post are not contributing to that goal. They are not asking for help with a question. They are not engaging in the conversation or helping answer questions for others. The only reason I have been given to allow members to join and not post is so they can PM people who place ads in the Classifieds. Well, that's nice for the people placing the ads, but pretty thin otherwise, as most members do not place ads at all.

"(which is down to almost none now that we took your lead and deleted the zero posters.THX for the idea ! )

We now require 1 post within a month and 10 posts before allowing links. All newbs have to be approved before posting access is granted. (I think the 10 post minimum was the most effective part of our effort.)"

Speaking of the Classifieds I had a real problem there, and it never went away until I imposed a 10 post requirement on placing ads. So yeah, that works. Getting rid of the zero posters older than 90 days has had no ill effects, and if it's just to support people who want to PM on an ad, then 30 days will still be fine. Anyway, thank you for that feedback. It's good to know the one post in 30 and 10 post rule is working for you.

[SeabeeRon]

14 hours ago, Gold Seeker said:

I use the following site.

https://www.stopforumspam.com/

 

15 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

Steve

They're getting trickier !🤔

Links to a couple of sites we use on my forums to weed out the scammers.

(which is down to almost none now that we took your lead and deleted the zero posters.

THX for the idea ! )

We now require 1 post within a month and 10 posts before allowing links.  

All newbs have to be approved before posting access is granted.

(I think the 10 post minimum was the most effective part of our effort.) 

 

Also , The vast majority of our spammers have (had) an email ending in .ru  

I have a member that was traveling in Russia and I kept allowing them in , thinking he was recruiting new members........not anymore..I  purged their sorry butts.     I just had a thought that their internet  might be restricted right now too ?

 

The first is an IP lookup that gives several locations . I found that I developed a feel for this after seeing patterns and repeated providers over the first few months.

https://www.iplocation.net/ 

This one my IT girl found and uses. I used it only once but she said she liked it.

https://scamalytics.com/ip/api/pricing

Those are all good links for weeding out spammers!  We use them all over at FMDF.

[rvpopeye]

Thank YOU Steve !

I'm relatively new here but it is starting to feel like "family" .

Anything I can do to help anytime..... 

It's funny , after posting that last night I got 3 live ones this early am. 

 All had the same email provider (not .ru ) and tried to insert sales links in their profile , might have been only one spammer trying 3 times ? LOL