I am reposting this thread with updated info all in one post so it's less confusing. If you cannot post please read this post.
As a spam prevention method we have created a usergroup for Full Members. All established posters were added to this group, new members must be added to this group in order to be able to post on the boards (except POOP, which is a separate group) but will only be added once they have confirmed they are not spammers by making an intro post. This is supposed to be a little easier and less time consuming for me than Administrator approval of new accounts.
Why so much spam prevention? We had a period of constant spam, every day we had several posts most of them porn spam with images. Banning IP's and domains didn't stop them. This prompted me to switch to administrator approval of new accounts but it was time consuming checking out all potential new posters and I am only human so I may have missed approving someone on occasion. Since the board upgrade we have a bit more spam controls available but I am not going to risk any of that crap getting through when I switched back to user activation so I set up the group so new members still have to be approved to post but there isn't just one person doing the approving.
If you are a new member and cannot post: New members must post an introduction post in the Introductions forum. The post will go into a Moderation Queue that only the moderators can see. I understand that not everyone likes making intro posts but we need to know you're not a spammer, all you have to do is make a quick post saying something specific about sluggy; how long you've been reading, favorite character or storyline, etc. Do not make a generic "Hi, I'm new here. Nice site." post because that is a spammer M.O. and you will not be approved.
Once a moderator has approved your post they will also add you to the Full Members group and you will be able to post everywhere on the boards (except for restricted areas). Depending on who's online when, approval could be fairly quick or could take a day. It will go quicker if you make the post as instructed. I am sorry that this doesn't allow for spontaneous joining in order to quickly comment on a specific comic or post but I am not willing to go back to finding spam on the boards on a daily basis.
Do not PM me asking why you cannot post or asking me to add you to the group if you haven't made an Intro post. The whole point of this system is so that I do not have to be the sole person adding new posters. I don't want to establish a precedent where posters can just PM me or other mods to circumvent the Intro post rule. However, if your post was approved but you weren't added to the group you may PM someone, we're all still new at this and may occasionally forget a step in the process.
If you are an established or returning poster and you can't post: You may have been left off the list when the Full Members group was created. There was a glitch with users with spaces in their names when they were copied and pasted from the database. We have since gone over those names and added them to the group. Now any users that may still not be in the Full Members group were either missed in one of the copy and pastes or were intentionally left off because I was suspicious of them (no posts and spammy name/email) or they were posters were went inactive for one reason or another and weren't even appearing in the member list. If you cannot post you can do the same thing as the new members, post in the Intros forum and ask to be added to the group or you may PM me or another moderator to add you to the list.
If you are unable to log in: Your account may be inactive, either you never activated it, it went inactive after you changed some info in your profile (such as email) or you were never activated by me during the period of admin activation; you will have to email me at the email in my profile which is my user name at sluggy dot net. If you have to email me keep in mind that it may take a couple days for a response, depending on my schedule.
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