71 replies to this topic

[Charles]

Every community admin wants new members to join their community. Getting new members to join your forum is often the main mission of any site. However, we all know that new members can also cause trouble. Sometimes they are spammers and sometimes they are just there to cause trouble.

Using the group promotion feature in IP.Board is a great way to help you control new members. It works like this:

• Set your default members group and let's call it New Members
• Restrict the New Members group. You might not allow access to the PM system, limit number of posts per day, or even moderate all posts made by those in the New Members group. All of these are settings in Manage Member Groups in the AdminCP.
• Now the key point here is the auto-promote feature:

 IP.Board_ > Members > Member Groups.jpg   28.24K   304 downloads

As you can see there are two options to promote: by number of approved posts or days since joining. The idea here is that a member is probably going to be a spammer or a troublemaker right from the start so they will probably end up banned before ever getting that far. Choose the option that suits you best and then choose a group to promote the member to. You would probably create a Full Members group that removes all the restrictions of the New Members group.

Of course there are a lot more fun things you can do with this feature. Reward your most active members by adding in new features, access to private areas, etc. by having IP.Board automatically promote them to a higher group. Use your imagination to leverage simple features like this in IP.Board to implement very advanced experiences for your members.

Feel free to reply if you have any other creative uses or ideas for this feature.

[Cloaked]

Charles you must have peeked into my admin. That is how I do it. Restrict PM's, no sigs, no links until promoted after x posts.

I use promotions and demotions as tools to keep members active. I have limited user groups which are akin to being told to sit in the corner. I have guru groups. The best thing added to forum software was without a doubt the promotions system.

[Alfa1]

I use reputation for this. Once a user has accumulated enough reputation, the user is promoted to a group with more liberal permissions.

Reputation is more useful than post count, since any spammer can post 20 posts.

[Rimi]

In addition to this I have also seen it where those "New Member" groups are restricted to only posting in certain boards.

[SubStrider]

I use reputation for this. Once a user has accumulated enough reputation, the user is promoted to a group with more liberal permissions.

Reputation is more useful than post count, since any spammer can post 20 posts.

How is reputation any different than spamming? I can create more than one account, spam all I want then like those posts.

[Alfa1]

Not if new users can not give reputation. If only established members can give reputation, then new members are basically vetted by the community.

I dont use like. I dont think I ever will. I use a more advanced reputation system that prevents spamming or abuse. Users need to describe what is good or bad about a post and ratings are moderated. It has greatly increased post quality and increased participation on my big board. All my promotions are based upon reputation and post quality.

[SubStrider]

I dont use like. I dont think I ever will. I use a more advanced reputation system that prevents spamming or abuse. Users need to describe what is good or bad about a post and ratings are moderated. It has greatly increased post quality and increased participation on my big board. All my promotions are based upon reputation and post quality.

How can I get such a system. My members were really put off when they came to know that likes = reputation. Is there some way I can see it in action?

[Alfa1]

Some more background: Its also community moderation, as negative ratings can also cause promotion into even more restrictive usergroups or ban really troublesome members. It takes a lot of work out of my staff hands.

Its currently not available for IPS, but I hope that a future release of IPS products will include reputation comments. Once that is available its possible to create addon functionality.

[Charles]

If you setup your permissions correctly then a spammer cannot bypass this approach. You just create the New Members group to require moderator preview and you will quickly get rid of spammers

Don't forget you can do many tiers like New Members, Members, Full Members, Flagship Members, and so on. You can use a combination of settings and rules to slowly give your best members more privilege on your community. We all know that your core group of members is the heartbeat of your community.

[Zizzla_JA]

Personally charles how i do it is! after each new member has been validated if i have any dought about a user could be the name / email / any thing that looks a bit doggie lol, like you said go into moderate all posts made by this member for lets say 2 to 7 days depending on my suspesions, ipb is great software for controling members, thanks for the post mate

[⚔ Kirito]

This is basically the type of system I have.

Rank 1: Trial Member (upgraded to next rank after 7 posts)
Rank 2: Basic Member (upgraded to next rank after 65 posts)
Rank 3: Advanced Member (upgraded to next rank after being an active rank 2 member for 180 days)
Rank 4: Senior Member

Rank 5: Respected Member (members are upgraded to this rank after receiving a reputation level of +75)

My forum is built around user contributions.
Simply put, while everyone has some access to the site, if you want full unrestricted access, you either have to donate for elevated (premium/donator) status, or contribute yourself.

Users start out as trial members, after validating their e-mail.
Validating members have the same rights as a banned member. Basically, none at all. Validation is a requirement to combat spam.

As a trial member, users are granted very limited access to the downloads section of the site, but lack the ability to send private messages and other such community features.

Trial members are also restrained to making 5 posts per day, giving moderators enough time to review their posts before they make the 7 posts minimum to be upgraded to the next rank. These users are sometimes upgraded to basic member status early if they've proven they're on the site to actually contribute and not try and spam for free access.

Basic members are generally given full community access, but are throttled and capped at how much they can download per day.

Further increasing your rank offers your account less restrictions.

Respected Members and Premium Members have almost no restrictions whatsoever.

It's a system I've fine tuned myself over the years, but it would be tl;dr if I wrote out every single detail, so I've just kinda summed everything up.

It's worked well so far, with over 165k posts and now well over 100GB of user contributed content being uploaded. (500+ files in total, not including post attachments).

It's a somewhat restrictive system that definitely won't work for everyone, so unless you have a site that's also based around user contributions, it will probably just scare your members away.

[paw]

no links until promoted after x posts..

I use reputation for this. Once a user has accumulated enough reputation, the user is promoted to a group with more liberal permissions.

2 questions please / first where and how do I set no links until upgraded and secondly is the rep upgrade a manual option to upgrade or is this automated some how ?

thanks
Pete

[paw]

+ 1 more question as I can not reopen the above questions, is it possible to also restrict the use of profile options as part of this upgrade / check n balance proceedure to avaoid profile spam as well

Thanks
Pete

[Pregly]

Every community admin wants new members to join t...

Using the group promotion feature in IP.Board is a great way to help you control new members. It works like this:

• Set your default members group and let's call it New Members
• Restrict the New Members group. You might not allow access to the PM system, limit number of posts per day, or even moderate all posts made by those in the New Members group. All of these are settings in Manage Member Groups in the Admi..

Nice post and I want to set up my forum like this. However, where to set the "default members group" ? I found a setting related to Twitter and Facebook connection, but that's not what is needed..

thanks!

[⚔ Kirito]

Nice post and I want to set up my forum like this. However, where to set the "default members group" ? I found a setting related to Twitter and Facebook connection, but that's not what is needed..

thanks!

System > Settings > System > Social Media and Sharing
Default user group

[Pregly]

System > Settings > System > Social Media and Sharing
Default user group

Thanks for replying, however - this only seems to effect users who login using their Twitter or Facebook accounts. I'm looking for a way to set the 'regular' default members group.

[LandOfOoo.com]

Nice post and I want to set up my forum like this. However, where to set the "default members group" ? I found a setting related to Twitter and Facebook connection, but that's not what is needed..

thanks!

In conf_global.php find

$INFO['member_group']   = '3';

Change the number to the new group you want as the default member group.

[Zizzla_JA]

In ACP regarding controlling members, most of the first post by Charles i follow and have done a few tweaks , New members are placed in a group i have created called Newbies, In order to view my board fully with exception to introduction + site rules which they have to make a post in each of these 2 sections, Which is applicable after registration has been completed , This then promote newbies to members group still with some hidden sections of the forum , Now i have only done this as a trail period over the last few days ,And have tested this out by using an account i have created some time ago for myself to test as a member, Which comes in very handy to view what normal members can see and not see My issue is in ACP members group while setting this up!!! In the forum tab after report tab { Can view other members topics? } this throws me a bit, Should this be unchecked or checked as in ticked? Also

1.Can post new topics
2.Can reply to OWN topics?
3.Can reply to OTHER members topics

I guest number 1 would be yes, for intro and site rules post.
and 2 would be no? until promoted along with 3 ..... If wrong please advice as i want to make sure i get this set up correctly

Zizzla

[PPlanet]

I've always used this method and I've always had very few problems with spam bots, etc. Basically from email validating they go into a group we called UFOs (yes, we have a whole Planets and space theme with the membership groups ), and that also stands for Unidentified Forum Observers (aka lurkers).

Basically, they can see very little more than guests, so it's not a very inviting state to remain at. So, we have only one sub-forum called Introductory Posts, where they need to post a Hello type of message (and that's the only place in the whole site where they can Start a new topic, no replies allowed either).

It's a good idea to have the hook Auto Welcome Members to remind them they need to post after validation. Short and clear instructions via PM (as it doesn't matter how many times your've written instructions to guests across your site... people just don't read).

After they post there, they are automatically promoted to the next group that still has some restrictions until they reach 10 posts when they are again promoted. They cannot see the Members List, they cannot see Members Profiles (I wish they could see their own profile though; not possible with IP.Board 3.1.4 at least), and posting is capped at 4 posts every 24 hours, so I know they have to make the commitment of coming at least 3 times.

Someone was asking above how to prevent profile viewing. At least until 3.1.4, you can choose that for each membership groups permissions. The only thing, as I said already, I don't like about this, is that I'd like more flexibility to allow members always see their own profiles even when they can't see other people's. Maybe in later versions of IPB is possible but I don't know.

PS, one disclaimer about this method: my site has no problems attracting members. If your site struggles a bit to attract members, you may keep in mind that some of these restrictions may discourage some from participating.

[ZJohn]

On the drop down it says 'Approved Post' but we don't approve posts on our forum, so will it still promote after 30 posts in any case.