Help! I can't create a thread! Extra FAQ

[Secretariat]

Is there a way to alter the thread title of my existing recruitment thread, since I'm only looking for a few replacement players?

[Admin Sedracus]

PM a moderator with a link to your thread and the desired name change.

[Feluu]

I'm having the same problem as Volcarthe. I made the minimum 4 posts and would now like to create and recruit for a game that I'm GMing with some friends. But it's continuing to give me the error page. What am I missing?

And while we're on the topic, why do you want to deter new members like me from using your boards? I don't feel welcome with this measure in place. I realize you just want to prevent spam posts, but don't ALL game requests have to be approved by a GM before they are put up on the forums anyway? It's seems redundant to have to jump through 2 hoops instead of just 1.

EDIT:
I hate to be a Grinch during Christmastime, but some other sites don't have either of these restrictions (minimum post count just to be able to request a game, and after that you still have to be approved causing another delay) and I've never seen a spam post on any of those 3 boards. And I've been a member of two of those for a long time now. I was able to join and instantly post to recruit for a game. Your site is the only one that has these excessive restrictions.

If you're worried about spam threads popping up, give players the power to mark a post as spam and one of your 'many admins' (your own words) can take 5 seconds to delete it. Welcome and empower your community, don't deny and reject it.

EDIT 2: It seems you already have the option to "Report Post", so what's the problem?

[Zhefonyll]

Originally Posted by Feluu

I hate to be a Grinch during Christmastime, but rpgtonight.com, fantasygrounds.com, and rpgobjects.com don't have either of these restrictions (minimum post count just to be able to request a game, and after that you still have to be approved causing another delay) and I've never seen a spam post on any of those 3 boards. And I've been a member of two of those for a long time now. I was able to join and instantly post to recruit for a game. Your site is the only one that has these excessive restrictions.

If you're worried about spam threads popping up, give players the power to mark a post as spam and one of your 'many admins' (your own words) can take 5 seconds to delete it. Welcome and empower your community, don't deny and reject it.

EDIT: It seems you already have the option to "Report Post", so what's the problem?

The problem is that spammers like D&DOG. We've had issued before, and the current policy is designed to keep most of the spam off the site so that the staff don't spend all their time here deleting ads.

If the other sites you visit know a spectacular way to keep spam-bots off-site which would work for us, and they openly share it, we would consider something which is friendlier to new members and still handles the large quantities of spam that we've set up our site to automatically counter (and probably get back to you with why our technical staff say it wouldn't work here). No system is perfect, though, so we obviously have the "Report Post" button to assist in the staff's efforts to clean out what slips past the net (and it's useful for other issues as well as spam-bots).

However, this is the best our technical staff have come up with that doesn't remove site features in favor of security, and you only have to endure it once. There are other things we could do that would cripple spam-bots, but the site would lose some of the features that this community enjoys, and we'd rather not take away the toys.

The system updates your status automatically (on an hourly basis, if I'm not misremembering). I'm sorry that you found the wait unpleasant, but that's far better than waiting for a mod to approve your profile when you happen to post in a time where most of our staff is busy or sleeping. We really did try to make it friendly for you while keeping the site clean.


As an aside, please do not double-post. It is against site rules, and I see that you've found the "Edit" button.

[Feluu]

I can completely appreciate your point of view. It sucks that spammers really like DnDOG. We regular members hate spam just as much as you admin. But I stand by what I said. By placing all these restrictions (even if they are temporary), you're punishing new members just as much as bots. There's gotta be another way...

One thing in particular that bothered me was the inability to delete my own thread on the "Players seeking games" wall! That's just ridiculous. What does that restriction have to do with reducing spam?!

I know I'm just one annoying member and I'm making a fuss, but I honestly want to be a part of this community and make use of these forums. I can't do that if I can't post my games. Like I said, other sites that I've joined don't have any of these restrictions. If you want to make your site as best as possible (and I believe that you do), it'd be worth it to contact the admins of those sites yourselves and ask them what filters or whatever they have in place.

In any case, my account seems to be working now, so my original problem is resolved. And sorry for double-posting, although to be honest, that seems like another ridiculous restriction. What's the harm in posting more than once? Ten times in a row, sure, that's a problem. But twice?

By forcing new members to fill a minimum post count, they're just going to quadruple post on a dead thread anyway (or worse, on an active thread) just to reach that cap ASAP. It's silly...

[Zhefonyll]

Originally Posted by Feluu

One thing in particular that bothered me was the inability to delete my own thread on the "Players seeking games" wall! That's just ridiculous. What does that restriction have to do with reducing spam?!

That is an excellent question, and one for which I do not have the answer. I'll make sure it gets to the eyes of the coders, so that they can correct the problem or explain why it's effective as a bot-deterrent.

I know I'm just one annoying member and I'm making a fuss

Sometimes, I'm just one annoying mod and I'm making a fuss.
We all do it now and then, and it's tolerable when there's a fair reason for it.

And sorry for double-posting, although to be honest, that seems like another ridiculous restriction. What's the harm in posting more than once? Ten times in a row, sure, that's a problem. But twice?

Double-posting isn't so much a harmful behavior as it is an irritant to some readers of the thread. Like leet-speak, it breaks the flow of the thread, and we just don't want it. Besides, what makes a double-post needed when you can just edit your post? The passage of time is really the only reason you should want to double-post (because then an edit could be missed by people who'd already read the last post you made).

The limitation on double-posting is also, in part, because a minority on the Internet consider post-count to be terribly important. If you don't ban multiple-posting outright, this minority can become an irritant due to their pointlessly-swollen post-counts and pursuit thereof.

Sometimes we get a newbie who posts four spammy times just to break out of the new-member group, but it's usually not a problem. The two rules aren't even both aimed at the same problems.


EDIT: Also, sorry I missed answering this before:

Originally Posted by Feluu

I realize you just want to prevent spam posts, but don't ALL game requests have to be approved by a GM before they are put up on the forums anyway? It's seems redundant to have to jump through 2 hoops instead of just 1.

The way the system is currently set up, you can post an ad for a game without the staff reviewing it. Thus, there is no double-redundancy there.
Staff review only comes in when you request the game itself, which we then check on to see if you've got interest/players for the game and a few other little details before we set up your own area of the site to run things in.

[Adorios]

It has been my personal experience that once threads start reaching more pages, I am less likely to open that app thread, since by then there are already too many people to compete with. With games that have the original applications in the advertisement forum, is there some way that those original pages can be deleted so that new players are not discouraged from opening a thread?

[Admin Toad`]

Originally Posted by Feluu

One thing in particular that bothered me was the inability to delete my own thread on the "Players seeking games" wall! That's just ridiculous. What does that restriction have to do with reducing spam?!

The way the Site permissions are currently set up, users either have the ability to delete their own threads Site wide or they don't.

The non-ability to delete a game advertisement has nothing to do with reducing spam but more to do with eliminating the ability for one user to delete an entire thread worth of posts.

I'm curious.... Why would one want/need to delete a game advertisement anyway?

---

Originally Posted by Adorios

With games that have the original applications in the advertisement forum, is there some way that those original pages can be deleted so that new players are not discouraged from opening a thread?

Not without contacting a Moderator or an Admin to delete the posts for you. In each case, the Staff member in question will not take the matter lightly and likely will not comply with the request unless the posts are rather old.

-Grave

[Jocularity]

Hi, i just requested a game, and forgot to check to box for "Post Advert Thread Now", which is what i wanted to do. Now i can't make an ad, or re-request the game with the box ticked. What should i do in such a circumstance?

[Admin Chuck]

You can make an ad by going in and editing the game request. Your DM Control Panel in the tools menu gives you the option to edit the request, and in there you can check the box to create the advert thread and click on save or update request. That should create your advert thread.

[GleefulNihilism]

Apologies as it wouldn't surprise me if this has been mentioned already, but I seem to have gotten my ability to post "DMs Seeking Players" ads disabled. I can post "Players Seeking DMs" ads to me heart's content, but not "DMs Seeking Players". Did I trip something somewhere?

Is it a spam thing? There probably be something that tells the spam filter that posters with a certain number of posts or more is exempt from it.

[Zhefonyll]

All game ads in DMs Seeking Players are now part of the game-creation system. Nobody posts there directly, but you can create an interest/recruiting thread via the "Request a Game" form found in the Tools dropdown menu. Essentially, interest-threads get turned to recruiting-threads so often that the two were merged in a more-streamlined system a while back. The form you fill out becomes the thread and its opening post.

I must admit that I've not used the utility much myself, so one of the other staffers might offer further detail. But that's the gist of it.

[GleefulNihilism]

Ah, I missed that part. Apologies. Considering a game, danke.

[Annolennar]

Since the old thread for closing advertisement threads is gone, how might one go about getting the thread tag for an old thread changed from "Game Closed" to "Other"?

Thread in question is here: Hymns of the Unseen

I already have both a game forum and an ad thread, so I don't want to resubmit anything.

[Zhefonyll]

If you click Edit Post on the opening post of that thread, then click Go Advanced, can you not change the tag there? I swapped it for you while I was looking, but I'm pretty sure you should be able to do it this way.