New User Registrations.
 

There are apparently still some people who refuse to let the past go and act like they are at least 5 years of age, so we are taking a more active role in stopping the nonsense.

All new users will now not be able to post until a forum admin approves their account. It is unfortunate certain children are forcing us to do this, but it is for the protection of our community here. We take the positive nature of the community here seriously, and are willing to make the extra effort to keep it that way.

To our legitimate new users. This is a close but open family and you are very welcome here. We have admins on this board almost constantly, so you will not have long to wait. Welcome to you, and feel free to read around the boards until you are activated.

I'm always amused to see trolls get banned after their 1st post.

But do you think the harm of this method outweighs its benefit? The trolls could pretend to be good until they are approved. Meanwhile, good new members (the majority) will have to deal with the hassle of waiting for approval...

It's a difficult choice, but I do think the good outweighs the bad, at least right now. We have at least one admin on here almost all of the time, so the wait time will normally be negligible. Also, it's really not very hard to tell when a registration is genuine and when it isn't. Many years of forum admin experience make it easy to spot most of the time.

You guys rock. Long live ToS! :D

These look like trolls, I can tell from their IPs and from seeing quite a few of them in my time :P

Hahah sacred! I love it :D

The last forum I was a part of did this same thing. This is definately a good way to moderate more efficiently...

...Thing is, I thought this was already the case when members joined. :P

No, it never has been enabled before. We have always had email verification on, but 99% of forums do that anyway just to prevent automated registrations.

To everyone, sorry we have to do this :(

It is a good idea in some ways, bad in others. As others have said, it delays the registration of genuine people somewhat and may even drive some people away. On the other hand it does allow for much more efficient control of 'outbreaks'...

I do think you have made a wise decision though.

Idea has genuine good points and bad points, stick with it. <3

Mods: Thank you for being so on top of things. I signed in a few hours ago and found some spam messages in my PM inbox, and the miscreants behind it were banned by the time I found out about them! It's sad that you've had to do this, though -- and you may have to keep turning off more and more features (like PM'ing) as the trolls keep finding new ways to be annoying...

Anyway, I'm glad I found my way to Tree of Souls. Nice people *and* a competent admin team! :)

I too have encountered issues with this too and, as tallbluewanderer said, those behind it were dealt with extremely quickly and concisely.

Keep up all the awesome work mods.

I think I had more issues with it because I told off the cretin who sent it. He created a half dozen other accounts just to keep sending me spam.

Thanks mods/admin.

I dont think this is a bad idea at all. I honestly see nothing negative in doing this. I am on many other forums who use this method and it has never bothered me. I mean what is the harm in waiting just a bit to start posting if it is a community you really want to join? I think this is a good decision guys. Keep up the work :)

If you get such PM's again, hit the report button and we'll have dealt with the troll in no time :D

@Gunny: It might scare people away, not all sites have as active admins as we do, and they might think they'll be forced to wait several hours, if not days.