Yes and they were also redundant.
1 Like
After an overwhelming response to this:
Precisely zero interest 
just in case anyone is interested,
although an illuminating reply from Piotr regarding light bulb changing 
I took it upon myself to create a ânew memberâ FAQ here. as I read, tonight, yet another new member mentioning being unable to post attachments.
This should not only explain how to post attachments but also introduce them to the FAQs.
The aim is for regular users to point new members at this post in the FAQs so the new members may promote themselves instead of waiting for Admin.
All, please feel free to comment, edit, or, if displeased, exterminate the wiki in the FAQ.
1 Like
My question would be why so many hurdles about images and attachments for new members? I can understand that a new member may not be a real person and may be trying to spread viruses. I can also understand a new member might also be unbalanced and post inappropriate content. However I assume these would be very rare and could be dealt with in a way that is not so unwelcoming to typical genuine new members. Requiring them to read 20 posts for at least 20 minutes on 5 occasions, or whatever, seems a bit over the top.
Thinking of my initial post, I had a problem I was trying to solve and was dealing with setting up a new account with passwords and permissions all the while trying to make sure I wasnât ticking or untucking boxes that were going to result in a flood of spam etc. I canât recall whether posting an image would have helped explain my problem but if it had and Iâd been refused I might well have decided this forum was not very helpful. I would have been wrong of course but that is what might be happening for some potential new members and thatâs a pity if blocking images and attachments is not really necessary.
Jan
My solution to this problem would be to have any recent userâs post that contains an image be held until approved by a moderator (or in lieu of a moderator, anyone on a list of long-time posters who volunteer for the task).
It is the way the âoff the shelfâ forum software, that Kicad has adopted, works, as explained in the link in the FAQ.
Many Kicad users join the forum because they have a problem using Kicad. Most would like solutions sooner rather than later. Many of those problems are best sorted if multiple pictures or attachment can be posted.
Only moderators can bump a new user.
There are only three moderators ( I think that is the maximum).
A moderator has to be online and have read a newbeeâs plea to post⌠might take 24 hours or more.
The FAQ simply instructs the newbee how the forum works and how to self promote in ten minutes, rather than just waiting and hoping for permission to post.
Maybe @hermit could post some statistics.
This looks for me not being better/faster than how it is now. New user can be more surprised if he could post posts with attachments that will be not visible than if he canât post such posts.
It looks (from FAQ) that new user can include one image to his post. In many cases it can be enough to explain the problem.
It is not a big problem to reach level 1 (attachments allowed). The problem is to know what you have to do and the jmk FAQ for new users is the good solution, I think.
Read 30 posts - if you fast look through one long thread (donât reading it) you probably get it.
They have to be in 5 different topics - you only need to open 5 topics, I think.
10 minutes spend on forum seems to be the most demanding task.
If new user knows what to do (that is the key) he can promote himself to level 1 in 10 minutes.
It is better than waiting for moderator being online.
That stats provided are what the software has and not very useful. We have a mod in Malaysia (or there abouts?), Finland and the USA. The staggering helps with coverage. It would be nice if the software offered customizable permissions.
The FOSS movement does encourage a bit of self-reliance and individual research. Historically, quite a lot of posts could have been answered by a brief look at previous answers or by reference to the FAQs. The forum reading requirement was, I believe, set up to encourage members to do a bit of legwork themselves and to familiarise themselves with the forum layout and maybe discover the answer to their own question themselves. It also makes spam posting more difficult.
The forum has grown and is now quite busy but there arenât many moderators - Iâm not sure that lifting the restriction would be a good plan as this might encourage the posting of more unresearched questions.
Discourse (the forum software) does a pretty good job of encouraging users to look at previous answers before you post. The âhave a look before you postâ is actually pretty common on a number of sites that use Discourse. I think the requirements are actually pretty modest and once youâve earned your stripes you get to keep the posting rights.
I was deleting daily last week people/bots posting random programming site cut and pastes, presumably to see what sticks and build post counts.
Gambling sites are common spammers, in Vietnamese for some reason. (Many people from Vietnam are held as slaves in Cambodia and Laos and forced to spam and make Macau scam phone calls)
1 Like
Must be your time zone. I see less.
Yeah, well, Malasia & Australia are way ahead of the US, and so is Finland. It stands to sense that Davidsrbs gets first bite of the cherry. 
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.