haha yeah when i reregged i hated having to do the newbie quiz we should totally move that haha yeah

a lot of forum aspects could be modernized to at least avoid keeping people out and this is probably a good start

I'm down with the idea to remove the newbie quiz and make the registration process smaller. 

It's been a while but I remember it was quite the struggle 6 years ago, and with everything going on on that board page I can imagine it's 10 times more complicated now.

Some things, like the captcha and confirmation e-mail are pretty standard and I don't think can be avoided. 

However removing one or two steps my be helpful. I think not having hundreds of announcements would make it a little less overwhelming. And...

I completely forgot about the newbie quiz!!! Perhaps the newbie quiz could be a requirement for becoming a regular member instead of an absolute requirement? 

Light Knight : I like that idea.

If I remember correctly the current requirements for member are 10 posts and 1 week right? So perhaps have the Vizzed account automatically send a PM asking the user to take the newbie quiz after 1 week of registering. 

I love the idea of the newbie quiz being a requirement to become a regular member. Saves people who just want to play games from having to waste their time.

Captcha and e-mail verification are standard nearly everywhere and I'm okay with that.

Would taking a newbie quiz fast track them from newbie to normal or would it basically be a road block from stopping newbies from becoming normals until they take the test?

I also think we could make registration and verification into 1 single page. That would eliminate 6 pages off the current registration and automatically log them in after doing so.

I'm also on board with making the newbie quiz the requirement to be a member. After all, that quiz is all about the boards, so if you're here to be an active member and not just be around the RGR you have to take that small test.

If it's not already done, we should modernize the registration page so it automatically redirects to the verification page, just like the login page can automatically redirect you to the board index. This way, a new user would only need to open a second tab to check the email while the registration page automatically turns into the verification page, which also allows them to start filling the fields as they wait for the email to arrive on the other tab. Same after verification, make the login page as an automated redirect to speed up the process further.

We should also correct that a newbie doesn't have as unread the announcements made before they registered. It's silly to load them up with that many announcements, considering most of them aren't even of any importance once enough time has passed. At most, mark the announcements made in the last 30 days or so as unread, simply because the new code only makes announcements appear if there's any marked as unread (just like notifications and PMs).

I more support just axing the quiz altogether, but I can get behind making it a step in getting full member. I was under the impression that the newbie quiz was more in place to prevent people from using huge amounts of accounts made by bots to advertize or something along those lines.

I remember trying to get my friends to join the site and only a few of them actually joined. None of them are active on the site now and they barely were to begin with. Their main complaint was that the site interface was a mess. I think the site has gotten a lot better now but I don't think they'll be coming back unfortunately. If the new user registration was a little bit simpler, they might have stayed.

I can say from personal experience that it's hard to get people to join and be active posters. I told a couple of friends about Vizzed when it came to retro games and stuff...one of them signed up and barely did anything, the other didn't bother signing up at all. Personally, I registered a long time ago to get rid of the 5-play-per-day limit and started posting because I thought game reviews were cool and wanted to do them. The issue is that there are plenty of websites that aren't Vizzed that can provide the same service easier and faster, and I totally agree that the Newbie Quiz shouldn't be necessary. Honestly, the Quiz should either be totally removed or rewritten, simply because it's just patronizing to the user in its current form.

I have to agree with NovemberJoy, I tried to get a few of my friends to join a few years back and the whole registration process and website layout were too confusing and complex for them. You can see by checking the "Real Life Friends" section of my friends list that only one of them has posted, and she made 1 post lol. I do think simplifying the registration process and getting rid of the newbie quiz would help.

The large number of announcements looks pretty off-putting. I'd be out of it if I registered and saw that. Most of them are music or competitions anyway, they hardly have a huge meaning anymore.

As for the quiz. I prefer the idea that they can post in threads, but not make them for a little while. It would stop thread spam.

Maybe limit the amount they can post in, in a small amount of time, for a bit as well? I'm thinking of spam on this one. I'm not saying destroy their fun, but if you post five times three minutes, you're probably not putting your best into your posts.

Oh yes, I do believe the Newbie Quiz should be nuked. Granted it might result in spamming, but the Captcha would do just fine stopping bot spam, leaving only actual human spammers which are easy to get rid of.

Also make it so only Announcements within the last 1-2 month having to be flagged for them to read, as that would make them very much less overwhelmed.

Adding to the pile here to agree LightKnight's and Pennylessz' suggestions.

Would hate to see the Newbie Quiz go, it's a funny way of introducing the rules.

Not sure anything would stop people trying to game the Viz earning system by spam-posting, chances are they don't care it won't work.