Really? Fifty posts?

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JGrim
JGrim Member Posts: 57
edited June 2014 in Comments, Suggestions, Feature Requests
Really? Fifty posts?
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  • JGrim
    JGrim Member Posts: 57
    edited August 2009

    So, as a new forum member, I'm currently restricted to five posts a day.  This is a fairly understandable safety measure, but it is seriously frustrating.  Especially since you don't get the warning that you've reached your post limit until *after* you've typed out your post.  I've read in a few threads here that this limit isn't removed until the new member has reached fifty posts... if this is the case, I'm giving up and going back to lurking only.  That's ten days minimum if I manage or remember to post all five of my posts and more probably a couple of weeks since the five post limit inspires me to wait for something I *really* want to post.  A five post limit in a forum with over fifty categories is extremely limiting.  I realize I can PM people, but that's not what a forum is for.

    I also realize that this is a spam prevention measure and that you guys had quite the spam problem in the past, but really I think this hurts a genuinely interested forum member way more than a potential spammer, since a forum member will want to stick with their established identity but a spammer won't mind creating multiple accounts to circumvent the limit.

    Could you maybe consider a lower limit, or something time-based rather than quantity based?  Or possibly even moderator approval based memberships?

    EDIT (sigh): Also, editing a post counts against the limit.  Which is truly aggrevating.  Especially if I type something by mistake and must wait half a day to fix it.

    EDIT #2: Which I did.  Three posts down the drain for today already.

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  • London-Virginia
    London-Virginia Member Posts: 851
    edited August 2009

    Yep, to start it is a pain - I was very panicky on dx and could have done with more access. but stick with it please - there  is so much to be gained here from both learning and receiving and - giving.

    Suggestion - type your post on word doc and then paste into the thread.  (do I get round to this, er, no, but at least you don't loose your typed post if the site doesn't let you in that time.

    Stick with us and good luck -

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  • JGrim
    JGrim Member Posts: 57
    edited August 2009

    I do freelance graphic design and play about a dozen online adventure games... I participate in a lot of forums.  I have for years.  This is the strictest new person limit I've ever encountered.  It's not that the forums here aren't fabulous, but I'm tired and busy and don't really want to spend that much extra time cutting and pasting and rationing out posts for a couple of weeks.  I like this community, but that's a lot of work right now and honestly in the amount of time I'm carefully rationing out my two weeks of posts here I'll probably be getting to know other people in other communities much easier.  It's just a suggestion... I can't imagine I'm the only new person frustrated by this, and even if I go elsewhere I think it would be worthwhile to consider some other option for future new members.

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  • otter
    otter Member Posts: 6,099
    edited August 2009

    JGrim, you are not the first person who has complained about the 5 posts-per-day rule for new members.  Those of us who have been here longer are hearing you but really are powerless to do anything about the rule.

    I joined this forum on January 16 (2008), two days after my biopsy and literally an hour or so before I got the phone call with the biopsy results.  If the fifty-post rule had been in effect when I joined, I would have learned of my biopsy results (IDC, grade 2); met with my oncology team (surgeon, radiation onco, and med onco); had a breast contrast MRI; had a follow-up axillary ultrasound due to concern that there was clinical evidence of lymph node involvement, which would have necessitated full axillary node dissection rather than SNB; and had a pre-surgery consult with a plastic surgeon ... all while under the 5 posts-per-day limit.

    I would have gone stark raving mad.

    I desperately needed to be able to discuss my concerns and pose my questions here, where I could be consoled and reassured and advised by women who understood what I was going through.

    So, yes, IMHO, the rule is too stringent and was an overreaction to a problem that occurred quite awhile ago. Maybe there is a better solution.  In the meantime, be judicious with your posts.  Make them as long and convoluted as necessary.  Go elsewhere, if necessary.  This is a great place, though.  I could not have made it through the past 18+ months without it.

    otter 

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  • Marple
    Marple Member Posts: 19,143
    edited August 2009

    Good grief........I'm embarrassed by the # of my posts.  JGrim, if you want to PM me with your posts until you are deemed 'safe'.....I will gladly post them for you.

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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited August 2009

    Wow - I didn't realize there was a limit to new members...I don't remember this being in place when I joined in 2006.  Good thing too - I totally understand your frustration JGrim...maybe if you pm'd the mods they would make an exception...?  Now that I say that, I doubt it, but it's worth a try.

    Please don't give up...there's much support here...feel free to pm me if you ever need anything!

    Peggy

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  • JGrim
    JGrim Member Posts: 57
    edited August 2009

    Yeah, I didn't try PMing the mods, but I don't think it would help much... it doesn't seem like there's a lot of active mod participation here.  Which is not to say that I don't think "the mods are doing their job"... moderating a forum is usually a thankless and overwhelming task.  This is why none of my websites have ever had forums, heh.  It just means that I see a lot of questions and comments on the forums here that are directed toward site ownership that haven't been answered for weeks or even months, so I get the feeling this is more of an unsupervised or self-policed community and the people who are active are restricted by whatever rules or code were set in place the last time the site was revamped.

    Yesterday I was so frustrated that I'd hit my post limit by noon that I wasn't going to come back at all, but I figured I'd at least pop in every once in a while.  Maybe, heh.  To use a similar example to Otter's, if I'd come here the day I found my lump I'd have gone through all of my initial testing and scans and had my mastectomy before my post limit would be removed.  That just seems kind of ridiculous to me.

    I could just lurk, or I could PM people, or people could post on my behalf, but honestly when you find a friendly online community that you want to participate in... you want to participate.  You actually want to get to know people, and hopefully at least some of them want to get to know you.  If you're reading a thread and it's something you identify with, you want to be able to say so.  So it's not very fun (and in fact is decidedly not fun) to browse an interesting and engaging forum knowing that you can't post anything for another twenty-four hours.

    So... I'm not going to say 100% that I'm not coming back, but I'm definitely going to limit my browsing here.  There are whole categories that I'm not even checking out currently because the few that I do browse use up my post limit immediately. *shrug*

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  • Cathicam
    Cathicam Member Posts: 47
    edited October 2009

    Thanks Madalyn for pointing the way to this. I myself am getting very frustrated with the whole 5 posts in 24 hours thing and a total of 50!?! Truly I have found that I fit into several different places here and I have questions and things to add in each of those places. If I reach my limit I don't want to have to burden someone else by having them ask the question for me or not reply to a question because I have reached my limit.

    Please change this, I work in IT so I understand the whole spammer problem very much but I think it has gone way too far into the extreme.

    Thanks for looking into this.

    Cathi

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  • konakat
    konakat Member Posts: 6,085
    edited October 2009

    Most spammers seem to be hit and run so I don't think the 5 post rule really weeds them out. Someone new and has immediate questions to be posted should be allowed to do so.

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited November 2009

    Okay, We'll consider changing this. 

    Thanks for all the feedback. 

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  • althea
    althea Member Posts: 1,595
    edited November 2009

    I've seen comments that new people didn't know about the posts limitations until they were there.  Information overload is probably at its worst when newly dx'd, so probably there's no effective way to communicate the limit in a way where it's certain to be noticed in advance. 

    But is it true that the limit also includes editing?  I think people could manage better if they could at least go back to one of their first five posts and do edits.  The time between dx and commencement of treatments is off the charts for stress.  So many of us have doctors who don't listen well.   If people can edit their posts, they still have their voice.  If someone hits the 5 post limit without realizing the limit was there in the first place, it's like being silenced.  That's a piece of stress a newbie could do without. 

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  • Rachel_BC
    Rachel_BC Member Posts: 1,386
    edited November 2009

    When I first posted I got hit by the limit without any notice, so that did stink BUT I think that as we ALL have a gazillion questions when we first get hit by the truck that is BC... being forced to actually READ what has already been asked and answered here was a GOOD THING.  There is something about the "signal to noise ratio".  Too many flutters of newbie questions repeating the same question will obscure the good answers!

    I am for keeping the posting limit for newbies, but for advising newbies of the limit first. 

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  • cakeisgreat
    cakeisgreat Member Posts: 660
    edited November 2009

    When I joined, I didnt know there was a post limit, and I had no problems posting, so I guess I didnt reach my 5 limit each day.  I was more interested in what others were saying about bc.   It could be good for newbies to listen first, learn to navigate the website, and/or see if their questions have already been answered before posting.  JMHO.

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  • London-Virginia
    London-Virginia Member Posts: 851
    edited November 2009

    Thank you Moderators

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  • Lindissima
    Lindissima Member Posts: 239
    edited November 2009

    My two cents:

    1. Increase the limit for newbies somewhat, but I echo  some of the above posters in the need for keeping some sort of limit.  It is important for people to read what has been posted and not just flood the site with questions.
    2. Inform new people of the posting limit.
    3. Editing should not count against the limit.

    This is such a useful forum that  it is somewhat a victim of its own success.  Attracting lots of participants is great, but has led to some of the features being unwieldy and in need of revamping to keep thing running smoothly.

    Many thanks to the moderators for making changes. Spell check is a great addition too.

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  • Lindissima
    Lindissima Member Posts: 239
    edited November 2009

    My two cents:

    1. Increase the limit for newbies somewhat, but I echo  some of the above posters in the need for keeping some sort of limit.  It is important for people to read what has been posted and not just flood the site with questions.
    2. Inform new people of the posting limit.
    3. Editing should not count against the limit.

    This is such a useful forum that is somewhat a victim of its own success.  Attracting lots of participants is great, but has led to some of the features being unwieldy and in need of revamping to keep thing running smoothly.

    Many thanks to the moderators for making changes. Spell check is a great addition too.

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  • tweetybird
    tweetybird Member Posts: 815
    edited November 2009

    I found this sight out at about the time of dx, but had a face to face support group. We are still in touch, but more socialy than medically now. It's nice to come on here to see how everybody is doing. I think I would have been frustrated if this was my only means of support if I knew that there was a 5 post limit per day. Hopefully this will change soon for the new people out there. :)

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited November 2009
    We're brainstorming. Thanks for suggestions!

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  • ElaineD
    ElaineD Member Posts: 2,265
    edited November 2009

    In view of the latest deluge of posting by  a likely troll/muchausen candidate -who has also changed her username- suddenly 50 postings sounds like an attractive option.

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  • AnnNYC
    AnnNYC Member Posts: 4,484
    edited November 2009

    Perhaps a lot of current posters were not around to see horrendous spam attacks in 2007-2008, when the board was flooded by spam (in some cases obscene or really cruel) in a way that denied use of the board by anyone for hours at a time.  Since the post limits on new members were instituted, we haven't had anything like that.  So for someone new, it may be hard to conceive of what a true spam attack is like.  If a limit of more like 20 or 30 would still protect the board from "denial-of-service" types of spam attacks, that would be great.  But I just wanted to say that these attacks were much worse than a person posting 5 times about a product...

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  • jancie
    jancie Member Posts: 2,631
    edited November 2009

    IMHO - this 5 posts a day until you reach 50 posts needs to be adjusted.  I came on board in January after just being diagnosed.  I needed so much emotional support, I had SO MANY questions.  I would sit here at night at 2 - 3 am frustrated because I could not respond to those people that were trying to help me through a most difficult time.  I figured out if I sat on the responses for about 8 hours, I could then respond to EVERYONE in one post.  I ended up PM'ing people I didn't even know.

    I even sent a PM to the moderator asking why I couldn't post more than 5 times a day or for how long I was going to have to endure this and I never got a response.  

    Yes, spammers are a headache to say the least but what is worse is having a newbie here trying to get some help and answers when just diagnosed and getting totally frustrated by the newbie process.  There were nights I cried because I couldn't get the help I needed because of my post limit or I couldn't respond to those that took the time to try to help me.

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