I've disabled the automated spam system for the time being.

Tharax, perhaps as a newbie you should wait for a while before posting a lot of links.

He/she might have something interesting to say.....I'm not quite sure why anyone's status should stop them from sharing things, that's hardly fair.  What's being a newbie got to do with it?   We don't have to agree with what they say, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't say it, or that they should wait until they have posted x amount of posts before they can post a link.

I don't think they mentioned posting 'a lot of links' either, just that they were trying to start a thread.

C'mon Warren, be fair. It's not normally like you not to give people a fair go.

Quote from: Syren on December 12, 2010, 05:27:31 PM

Quote from: Warren Dew on December 12, 2010, 02:04:08 PM

Tharax, perhaps as a newbie you should wait for a while before posting a lot of links.

He/she might have something interesting to say.....I'm not quite sure why anyone's status should stop them from sharing things, that's hardly fair.  What's being a newbie got to do with it?   We don't have to agree with what they say, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't say it, or that they should wait until they have posted x amount of posts before they can post a link.

I don't think they mentioned posting 'a lot of links' either, just that they were trying to start a thread.

C'mon Warren, be fair. It's not normally like you not to give people a fair go.

First post containing 4 links would raise red flags on any forum anywhere. On a lot of forums newcomers cannot post links at all, here all that happened was a slight delay in it getting ok'd.

What has being a newbie got to do with it? Pretty simple really, the newer the person is the more likely they have just registered to spam a few advertising links. Someone with 50-100 posts is almost certainly not a spammer, someone with 2 posts may be.

I personally think that would be the easiest way to stop a lot of the spam, no posting links until you've got over 10 posts.

The guy sent a post saying he was trying to start a thread....I doubt a spammer would bother doing that. Sheesh .... give a guy a break.  And if someone was doing that, they'd soon be picked up and turfed off anyway.

I was only sticking up for a newbie.....poor sod, and I see now that he's posted an interesting discussion about tubers....so not a spammer after all then!!

Quote from: Syren on December 12, 2010, 11:18:26 PM

The guy sent a post saying he was trying to start a thread....I doubt a spammer would bother doing that.

He also posted the same post 4 times first, which made the moderators' job more difficult, even if it wasn't as obviously spam on careful reading.  They've been cleaned up now, but having the same post occupying half the page when looking at a forum thread list isn't helpful.

If he would post an introductory post letting us know why he's considering going paleo - if indeed he is, which is far from clear - I'd be far more sympathetic.  As it is, it's not clear whether he's actually interested in finding out about and adopting a paleo lifestyle, or whether he's just here to rehash old arguments.

Edit:  still, if you're getting value out of the thread he started, that's great.

Well some of us, who are still relatively new ourselves, haven't heard those 'old' arguments and I'm buggered if I'm gonna go tramping through years of posts to find them....not that I'm particularly interested in potatoes or tubers myself, but still I like to be able to make an informed opinion about them and have the 'evidence' so that I can explain it to other people.

But he said he had been lurking for a while and was interested in Paleo, but had a 'question' about tubers.

I've been lurking around for a while though and was very happy to get a lot of useful information!

Like most of you, I never considered starchy tubers to be paleo, just a anaerobic performance enhancing food for athletes, as proposed by Cordain.

Hmmm, yeah, I can see why you think it's not 'clear' whether he's interested in Paleo or not.

Posts with links are often a problem.  Some of mine, and I'm not a 'newbie' now, go missing all the time and are never unlocked. Other people have complained about the same thing too. So newbie or not, posts with links continue to be an 'issue' anyway. But let's give the newbies a bit of a chance before we go castigating them eh? There are a lot of very new newbies on here, who have recently joined and haven't introduced themselves yet.....hey let's go on a hunt for them and make them feel bad for joining a Paleo forum to better their health and then not introducing themselves.  Bad, bad newbies.  How dare they.

Do you want people to join this thing or not?  I'm sure Eric does.

I understand the spam thing, but getting people to eat Paleo is far, far MORE important - the spam thing is a nusiance....death from diabetes or heart attack is .... well, fatal.

Be kind, be friendly, be supportive....people don't come on here to get lectures, they come here to get advice and support and have interesting discussions. Some of you sound a wee bit too elitist and dogmatic sometimes for people who supposedly care about the good health of others, which is why you're here right??

What you could have said Warren is: "Welcome to the forum Tharax. Yes, sometimes there is an issue with links in posts...it's to stop spammers flooding the forum...but if you are a genuine newbie, first it's advised to go to the introduction page and tell us a little about yourself. Second, I'm sure Eric will unlock your post soon.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy being here. Just let us know if we can be of any help."

Much, much nicer, kinder, friendly and more supportive and it didn't cost me a thing.

Quote from: samjohn on December 12, 2010, 07:31:55 PM

First post containing 4 links would raise red flags on any forum anywhere. On a lot of forums newcomers cannot post links at all, here all that happened was a slight delay in it getting ok'd.

True, many forums do not allow newbies to post any links until they have 50 posts and on some you also can't send a PM until you have reached 50 posts.  However, your claim that there was only a slight delay in getting it OKed is not true. I have over 300 posts. But something I posted 2 weeks ago in reply to a newbie hasn't showed up yet.  If it did show up it took so long toat I didn't notice it. If you are going to have spam protection it should only apply to people with less than 25 posts.

That's a good idea, wonder if this forum software is capable of that?