Change of User Permissions ("Why can't I edit my profile/choose an avatar?")

[Spike-X]

New users will not be allowed to do the following:

• Use signatures in their posts
• Send private messages
• Post profile messages
• Possibly be unable to post links at all.

You might want to add "have links in their signatures". I just reported a new member (3 posts) who had three spam links in their sig.

[zryson]

i fully support the measures to try and weed out the spammers and bots, because they are pretty prevalent and in some cases you see bots actually talking to each other which is weird because who knew a bot could talk? so i assume the technology is getting better, so new measures have to be thought of to try and combat it.

[Matt]

You might want to add "have links in their signatures". I just reported a new member (3 posts) who had three spam links in their sig.

They shouldn't have the ability to use signatures at all.
I have to assume that account was created before the changes took affect, since it won't go back and erase signatures.

[Mitteloss]

I assume I may just have to wait a bit more until things return back to normal for me.

[Matt]

It should be fine already. Try logging out and back in again.

[Jeremi]

It should be fine already. Try logging out and back in again.

Yeah I have the same problem with accessing my PMs.

And I tried logging out and in again, but I can't still access it.

EDIT: It's back now and everything seems to be working fine.

[Mitteloss]

It should be fine already. Try logging out and back in again.

Fab, its back :D

[Jared H.]

My private message allotment went from 100 to 50(I had 69 messages at the time and it didn't delete them, though it said my inbox was over 100% full).

Deleting so I got below 50 then logging out and logging back in seemed to get the allotment size back to usual, though.

[Cavemold]

Are the signatures taking up to much space?

[Matt]

Are the signatures taking up to much space?

What?





Anyhow, if you do encounter problems with Private Messages, simply wait a while. What I think VBulletin is now doing is that when you start a new forum session, it checks to see which usergroup you belong in and moves you if necessary. The changes from that move may take a while to kick in is all.

[Gothos]

Yep, as I said - it'll take approximately an hour for the system to work out the changes I've made. If what I've done is correct, then Private Message capabilities should return as per normal.

One thing I have just thought of is that I'm unsure if old private messages will be retained or not. I don't know if the system will remember them or not during the change-over.

To clarify, people with less than 20 posts will not have the following available:

• Private Messages
• Signatures
• Profile Messages

I was hoping to make it so people with less than 20 posts would be unable to post links at all, but apparently that takes extra unofficial software being added to the forums so we'll hold off on that.
So some spam will still get through but these steps should take care of PM spam, which we get a lot reported of.

I've had a couple of signatures here for a few years (more than 20 posts, yes) and I recently revised one of the sigs. Now both are gone. Is the sort of thing that the tech will self-correct in a day or so?

[Matt]

There's a signature limit of, IIRC, 250 characters. If you edit an existing signature that is longer than that, it will wipe it.

[Gothos]

There's a signature limit of, IIRC, 250 characters. If you edit an existing signature that is longer than that, it will wipe it.

So can I enter a new signature whose URL is less than 250 characters?

When I last looked at my profile I no longer saw a function for "Edit Signature" at all.

(Never mind-- I didn't look at my last ms. to see that my sigs were restored, and my profile once more has an "Edit Sig" function if indeed it was gone before.)

But the first general question might still be useful if it hasn't been covered. If it has been, fugettaboutit.

[AlanScott606]

My Private Message option never came back.

[Icefalcon]

Cannot PM at all. I've tried logging out and logging back in again but get this

Icefalcon, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:
Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

I don't think any of that applies to me does it?