Preventing New members from entering Spam.

[The Charmer]

I, personally feel that too many of the newer members of the guild are going straight to spam, and it's distressing to see the Roleplaying community dwindle due to these members going straight on to spam.

So, I suggest a 30 day, or a post limit that a member must fulfil before the Off Topic area, or at least the Forum games/Spam section of the guild becomes visible to them.

Is this possible, or are we roleplayers all going to lose out to spam?

EDIT:

I know that new members are unable to POST in spam for a short time... But I think that once they see what goes on in there, they're sucked right in

----On a side note----

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a member of spam myself, but I'll ALWAYS be an RPer first, and I'd like to see more RP's that I can sink my teeth into, I've seen too many crash and burn before they got anywhere.

This distresses me, as, after all, wasn't this site created for ROLEPLAY?

[Rose Swan]

I like this idea. Spam, while great for amusement, is the armpit of RpG. It corrupts new users too early.

But this plan also has several flaws. For example, bots. They would have nowhere to go but the roleplays and take away from them.

And also, HeySeuss has a quote in Bela's signature that ties into this. Spam is the Guild's condom. It keeps all the unwanted stuff from flowing out into the RPs. It would be a disaster without it.

The new users wandering straight to Spam make it a smidge easier to point out perma'd alts. Remember Griever and Acid? Acid went straight to Spam. We immediately knew that was Griever, bam. Ban.

[Nereid]

Plus, if the newer users can't handle posting in Spam without being fucktards about it, they can easily be banned, or make it so they can only access the roleplaying forums. Spam's a good way to pass time while waiting for partners to post, I think new people should be able to participate as well. Not everyone who is new is a pain in the arse :-)

[The Charmer]

I like this idea. Spam, while great for amusement, is the armpit of RpG. It corrupts new users too early.

But this plan also has several flaws. For example, bots. They would have nowhere to go but the roleplays and take away from them.

And also, HeySeuss has a quote in Bela's signature that ties into this. Spam is the Guild's condom. It keeps all the unwanted stuff from flowing out into the RPs. It would be a disaster without it.

The new users wandering straight to Spam make it a smidge easier to point out perma'd alts. Remember Griever and Acid? Acid went straight to Spam. We immediately knew that was Griever, bam. Ban.

I think I was away that day, but that's not what I'm getting at.

My point, as I trust Contra would see that from the OP is this.

I brought a friend over to the guild, he couldn't find any RP's that interested him... Guess where he went?

Most new members don't bother with creating their own RP's, now, I'm not saying that they are ALL alt's, but it's irritating to see the number of new and exciting RP's dwindle, specially when all the good ones that existed before, are dying, very, very rapidly.

I've been debating posting this thread for some time now, and finally gave up on trying to work out WHY, people would want to go straight to spam... Kinda defeats the object of the site, I recall talking to Lillian about this a few hours ago too, she shared my thoughts.

Plus, if the newer users can't handle posting in Spam without being fucktards about it, they can easily be banned, or make it so they can only access the roleplaying forums. Spam's a good way to pass time while waiting for partners to post, I think new people should be able to participate as well. Not everyone who is new is a pain in the arse :-)

See above for details.

Don't we have the ML, and other RP's for that, plus the galleries, the contests.

There's a lot to pass the time with, without resorting to acting like a retard for kicks.

And yes, I just called my self a retard, sorta...

We'll see what the boss says, shall we?

[The Australian]

The site is called Roleplayer Guild, right?

[Axl]

I see no problem with it the way it is. A user can decide what he/she wants to do. If they want to juggle both, they can. If they want to do one or the other, they can. If they can't take it, oh well.

[Rose Swan]

I do wish that RPs wouldn't die so quickly. I wish we had fresh blood with well written RPs. But that's the thing with big sites like this. Users join so many RPs they lose track, forget an important post, and there goes the RP. It happens. We don't like it, but it does. And then there's that nasty writer's block. That thing's a bitch.

[The Charmer]

I do wish that RPs wouldn't die so quickly. I wish we had fresh blood with well written RPs. But that's the thing with big sites like this. Users join so many RPs they lose track, forget an important post, and there goes the RP. It happens. We don't like it, but it does. And then there's that nasty writer's block. That thing's a bitch.

True, there are problems that kill RP's.

But I've actually attempted to do a check, and from what I can gather, there are more DIFFERENT people that have posted in spam, that elsewhere on the site (Excluding Intro)

Now, I attempted it on each section of the guild, but you see my point, 9/10 new users post in a spam thread before an RP thread, I know this because I lurk in the Introduce yourself section quite a lot.

[Rose Swan]

Posting in the pointless thread doesn't count. Same with the forum games. If they post in an actual SPAM thread though, and you know what I mean as far as Spam thread, then said user has issues.

---------- Post added at 02:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:25 AM ----------

And this just occurred to me: people are constantly complaining about the hierarchy of Spam. How it just seems like one big elite playground. Even the mods, even the Spammers themselves. This idea makes that exclusivity even worse.

[Guru]

Ok, I see what you are getting at Deamon, so don't get me wrong with this. From your perspective, it is understandable. However... I have strong feelings toward this from a moderator and as a general member of this community.

Roleplayer Guild IS indeed a Roleplaying site and that SHOULD be our main focus and I like to think it is. There is a great number of people on this site that simply Roleplay only. You have some that mix it up a bit, and then you have some people that are simply spam only. These spam only members... I honestly think we just 'tolerate'.

Hmmm... How can I say this in the easiest way to understand.

New members are often warned when joining the site about spam. It is even listed in the Guide that us Comrades usually link to all new members. The problem here, is that we shouldn't have to! This site is meant to be for Roleplaying. Contest, Gallerys, Discussions, and EVEN SPAM is MEANT to be either a place to exercise your creative talents or be a place where you can chat some outside of roleplaying. I know I'll probably have bricks thrown at me for this, but SPAM isn't meant for... the people that just spam.

I'll be frank and honest with you, they don't belong here. This isn't what the site is for. On the opposite end, we are a community, even when you first sign up and I don't feel it is right to cut new members off from ANY part of our community. The problem with spam though is that they tend to separate themselves off and form their own little community of sorts from the rest of the site. They want their own rules and they consistently bash on new people forgetting that SPAM is a part of ROLEPLAYER GUILD. We are all one community. Sadly, due to such things as well, we tend to cut slack to those people as they have been a part of the community and it would just be different without them, but they tend to try and take advantage of that and press buttons with the staff.

I'll be honest, I think we need to step up on spam. In Roleplays, people are almost always constantly getting infraction points for disrupting and such. Spam, although is not roleplay orientated, is still a part of our site and community. So if anything needs to happen at all... Spam needs to cut the shit and we need to start cracking down hard on them. Blunt enough for you?

So... no, I don't see us restricting access to new people coming in. However, I do see a crack down on spam being an option. To be fair though.. spam is not totally bad. There are times where it is just good times and good fun. It is times when spam suddenly decides to erupt though that I think the pressure really needs to be put on. Perhaps a lot of this is because there isn't a definite set of rules for you guys, or because some of you have gotten too used to bending the rules a little bit. Then issues begin to arise and that is really when spam becomes a problem and it becomes hard to cut down.

I personally think bold dark lines need to be made saying 'do not cross'. If you can't handle that, then goodbye, we don't need you here. This isn't what we are about and we won't tolerate that behavior.

But we don't like doing that. Mahz founded the guild on one general principle and that is simply, "Be Fonz Cool". Back then, when this site was much smaller, that was a pretty simple thing to go by. Now we so much always going on, it isn't and it is even harder to try to moderate and still stay true to those principles. Regardless of what some people may say about the staff, we really do try to stick to that principle, and thus we go easier on people sometimes that we should. Spam, being the 'troll-fest' it can sometimes be tends to take advantage of our leniency and cause issues, and only until someone finally hits the last nerve of a moderator, do they find themselves in the hotseat and shipped out on a perma. Hank and Griever for PRIME examples.

TL;DR Version: No, new members are also welcome anywhere on the site. Spam needs to learn to cut the shit or possibly face a strict banhammer always looming over them.