Newbies can't add new threads, only reply to existing ones...

One of our forum guides asked...

How about a 'New Member' tier - maybe up to, say, 10-12 posts - where their user rights are restricted so that they cannot start new threads.

Looking through some of the forums, it seems that first-time posters that start new threads usually fall into several categories:
1. Start a new thread on a subject that's already running - obviously they haven't checked first, or are posting in the wrong forum anyway.
2. Have registered with a new name purely to start a thread slagging someone off, or similar 'problem' thread.
3. Self-promotion/spam.
Some mailing lists on Yahoo will 'moderate' new members' contributions. Their posts have to be approved by one of the moderators for a period of time - usually until we are satisfied they are OK. This stops the sign-on-and-spam brigade, while the 'lurkers' will never be aware anyway. (Want this for VB? Find the hack here)

This is obviously not feasible with our board - there's too much traffic and we aren't always around to check it immediately - so this might be an easier way of moderating new members.

The downside is that some troublemakers might work it out and post nonsense in a number of threads to get their posts up to the requisite level - although by then, with any luck, this would have drawn our attention to them, and appropriate action taken.

For those of you who wish to try this, my hack is below:

1. Edit newthread.php to add the code in bold...

$permissions=getpermissions($forumid);
if (!$permissions[canview] or !$permissions[canpostnew]) {
show_nopermission();
}

if($bbuserinfo["posts"] < 10)
{
eval("standarderror(\"".gettemplate("error_forumne wbie")."\");");
exit;
}

2. Go to your control panel and choose "Templates: Add"
Template name: error_forumnewbie
Template set: your standard set (Default)
Template: "Thanks for trying to post a new message.<P>Until you've taken part in a few discussions, you can only reply, not post a new topic. Try searching for what you were going to post about, using the "Search" facility, and see if you can add your comment to something there."

3. Upload newthread.php

This will create a standard UBB error if you try to create a new topic and you've posted less than ten messages. (Change the "10" in the code snippet above to change the number of messages needed to be able to post new threads).

Improvements...

Want to turn this off for a particular forum? Look at the forum's URL in your browser to to discover its "forumid" number. It's the one right at the end of the URL.
Then change the "if" statement above to...
if($bbuserinfo["posts"] < 10 && $forumid<>11 && $forumid<>23)
This will let newbies to post new topics to my forum number 11 or forum number 23.

Want, also, to insist that this user has been a member for longer than two days?
Then change the "if" statement above to...
if(($bbuserinfo["posts"] < 10 || ($bbuserinfo["joindate"]+86400*2) > (time())) && forumid<>11 && forumid<>23)
The "86400 * 2" is the bit that mentions the days... change the second number to "1" to make the probation period only one day, or "5" to make it 5 days.

Hope you find this useful: see it in action at http://forums.mediauk.com/

[aldamon]

2.2.3 approved!

[mattyk72]

will this work with the latest vb?

I really wish they would make something like this standard with all vb releases

[peterska2]

no but you can achieve this for forum permissions and usergroup promotions