This is what I originally sent to Dave in a PM just to run it by him. He suggested I make a thread about it to see what others thought about it as well. Obviously not all the kinks are worked out yet about how it would function but I think the idea itself has some value....


"I just had an idea about a possible new user level.

It's between normal member and banned member. It allows you to continue to play games and get Viz for showing up on the board but it doesn't allow you to post. It can be used as a "temp" ban for people who are spamming just to get Viz for games.... but it won't run them off because they can still play.

Just a thought. I'd have posted this in the underground or dev forums but I can't so I figured you could if you liked the idea.

Not sure how useful it would be, but I think it would be a nice feature to have because it might keep people around visiting the board/RGR but won't allow them to post for a while. I'm of the opinion that posting on the forums should be a privilage not a right and this might be something that could be used to encourage that.

Like I said, just a thought. "

Yeah, that sounds pretty good.
I think that would help for a lot of people that just don't know how to post.
Because a lot the spammers want to post but don't know how.
And it would give them a break to try and get better but they can still play the games if they want to.
But I think people that do stupid things on purpose should just be banned and not allowed to do anything on here. So this would be a good in between.

We might not need a whole new rank for it because there are other ways to do that but would be nice as a rank. So this rank could be called: NoOb

But how would they be able to post if they wanted? That is the only part I'm confused on, how would they gain the power to post? Newbie Quiz? Or maybe they have been here longer then 30 days? or something like that. What are your ideas?

I'm not 100% sure. I figured it could be used as a possible "temp ban" user level.

Maybe it could be an option for local mods to "ban" people to this power level (so they don't depend on higher leveled staff to ban someone). It would allow that person to continue to buy and play games but prevent them from spamming.

Or, it could just be a power level used until they take the newbie quiz and until they do they are limited in the number of posts they can make per day or something.

Or a combination of both ideas. I think there is a lot we could do with a power level like this. I just think there this would prevent the loss of potentially good members. I know I banned quite a few people that have turend into fairly good members. Which probably means I banned even more people that just never came back. So instead of removing all the things they can do on the board, we simply remove the most annoying/destructive ablilities.

Or, it could be the power level that people get when they first join and have to take the newbie quiz and/or do something else in order to become a normal member.

There are lots of possibilities.

Nice, I like the idea of having that as the user level for people when they sign up.
That could go along with the 'have to do newbie quiz before post'.
And maybe for us Local Mods, we could give that to people for a day or something.
Just to stop them posting until a higher staff member comes.

I like the idea of them having the in between status before the Newbie Quiz, but as a punishment I think that it has it's ups and downs depending on how you spam. It just seems to me that if people see that they can spam and still play games that they were making bad posts for in the first place, then they would have accomplished their goal without consequence. For the newbies who spam, but don't know HOW to post it would be perfect. So I agree with joe that the stupid people who just want Viz should have no privileges on the site, but the newbies should have this power level and they could also get some help on how to post from the mods.

there are multiple things it could be used for. Some it will be better for than others.

But I think it would make a fantastic user level for all the new members. And in order to get upgraded they have to at least score a certain score on the newbie quiz. And once they've taken the newbie quiz then it's understood that they know the rules and can't get away with crap when they start posting.

But it could also be a great option for local mods as a "temp" ban or something like that. It would give them the power to ban people without banning them permanently. Maybe. That might not work though....

yes...yes...very well planned i must say yes xept tou might want to like just say when your banned not a whole new rank i mean if you cant post whos gonna see you?

but there are people that get banned that I wouldn't mind allowing to still play games. Some people just aren't made to post on message boards but they would still visit in order to play in the retro game room.

It would make it a lot harder for people that get banned to simply register a new account and start spamming. They would have to take and pass the newbie quiz before they could start posting (and that might even have to be confirmed by staff first).

It could stop a lot of problems before they start.