Moderated posts added to post count

[oddmusic]

I wrote this to vBulletin.com, but they don't support code mods, so they sent me over here...

In version 3.5, this was was implemented: Moderated posts and threads will no longer increase the poster's post count until the item is approved.

Is there a way to change it so they ARE counted in the post count, even if unapproved?

Here's why, since it probably doesn't make much sense without an explanation:

Users can register on the board after email verification, without being moderated. My "Registered Users" group is changed so that all posts they make go into a moderation queue. Once the post is verified as valid, they get manually placed into a new group, which is like the "default" Registered Users group, where they are free to post, etc.

If they are a spammer, even though their posts won't get seen, because they are in the moderation queue, they can still post a ton of messages, and there is no feature to limit the number of posts that a member or usergroup can make. (I know there is a older mod here for that, but most of the posts are from folks saying they had problems with it)

So I thought I'd set up a promotion, that would automatically "promote" them into a group where they cannot post any more, using "post count" as the criteria for the Promotion. So if they have posted 10 messages, they would get moved to a group where they could not post anymore. If they are a valid user, they would have already gotten moved into the "good user group" well before they reached 10 posts.

But since post count isn't reflected in moderated posts anymore, it looks like that method won't work, unless there is a way to turn that back on.

The reasoning being that we'd get notified when posts are made to the moderated group, so they can be quickly approved, so the limit would cut down on notifications from spammers, and also you wouldn't wake up in the morning with 500 spammed messages from the same user (even though they'd be in the moderation queue), but only 10 messages, and then they'd get automatically moved into a non-posting group.