[tm21]

On my forum I attract a disproportionate number of idiots, so I have been using a waiting period for several years now. This system is already built into vbulletin by the “promotions” feature in the usergroups part of the admin control panel. I set all new members to a special usergroup that has no privileges until 24 hours have passed. Once the waiting period is up they automatically get promoted. I also require unique emails and email activation, which wastes the troublemaker’s time. I then moderate (my staff does rather) all newbie posts until they get a few.

Does this discourage registrations? Perhaps, but I am after quality, not quantity. I find it essential to promoting a community of knowledgeable members to ruthlessly weed out all trouble makers. With the riff raff out of sight and out of mind of the established members, they are free to discuss what they will without the “children” interrupting the graduate lecture. Too many idiots will cause your better members to abandon your forum in search of something better. I have seen this happen all too often on poorly moderated, or unmoderated, sites.