Quote from Wendell on June 12, 2020, 5:29 pm

Ok, this is a tiny but significant update, particularly intended for new members. There's generally some confusion about what happens when you first sign-up for an account here at RPLS Today, especially in regards to the initial moderation of new posts. So I've created a new Welcome page, where new users are redirected right after they complete the registration process. You can see it here: https://surveyorconnect.com/welcome/

Over the years and testing many different ways to stop spam, the most effective of all has been to moderate the first two posts of each new user. They cannot freely post in the forum or send private messages until two posts have been moderated by us and approved. So the spammers started posting simple posts to try to hurry past this requirement -- for example, they might post "welcome" on someone else's introduction post. So I've made sure that the first two posts are legit and contain good content. Anyway, the two-post moderation requirement stands.

The effort of stopping spammers certainly slows the growth of this website. I mean, some folks might be turned off by the fact that they have to have two approved posts before being able to post freely, even if they are legit users. But, in my mind, it's something we need to do to maintain the quality of this website. As I mentioned in the update yesterday, our overall goal for this website is to maintain QUALITY not quantity.

All that said, I welcome you to take a look at the new Welcome page, even if you are an existing member. I'd love to get your feedback and suggestions to help the new folks. I feel like this Welcome page has been a long time coming, and I want to make other improvements to help ease new users into the fold. Thank you!