Admin Aproval-yes or no?

[STLUEE]

How do you feel about admin approving new members? I have tried joining several forums and been waiting weeks and months even for approval.I always check to see if its active.It doesn't matter to me if its large or small. No rejection or approval notice given.

Why do this if an admin isn't going to keep up to-date on this?

[Radrook]

I just assume that my application has been rejected and move on. That's if I see that administration is still active. If not, then I assume that other matters are preventing the response.

BTW
I responded to this in more detail yesterday and found my post absent.

[bigballofyarn]

May 18, 2019 17:07:46 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

How do you feel about admin approving new members? I have tried joining several forums and been waiting weeks and months even for approval.I always check to see if its active.It doesn't matter to me if its large or small. No rejection or approval notice given.

Why do this if an admin isn't going to keep up to-date on this?

I never send out an email whether I accept or reject an account.  I approve accounts within 24 hours though. Once approved, the member should receive the registration email from Proboards anyway.  The only accounts I reject are spammers. So, I'd have no reason to email them and tell them, "Hey. Sorry I didn't approve your account, but you're a spammer, and I don't want you."

Some people see this feature as an option to keep their forum for friends only. They only approve accounts that definitely belong to friends, and they let the rest sit there in case they change their mind in the future.

I think the "Restricted Registration Message" feature is a useful, and more people should write something there if they have restricted registrations enabled. It allows the admin to leave a message for or ask a question to new registrants. Mine quickly summarizes why account approvals are activated, that all spam accounts are declined, how long it'll take me to approve an account, and if they think they were declined in error, they may re-register.

[Retread]

May 18, 2019 17:07:46 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

How do you feel about admin approving new members?

I think it can be a useful tool to make it more difficult for problem posters to make accounts and spam a forum. But there are some things I very much dislike about it.

There's no way to know if you're dealing with a forum that has restricted registration until you've completed the process. And you can't bail out at that time. You just have to wait and see what happens.

May 18, 2019 17:07:46 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

I have tried joining several forums and been waiting weeks and months even for approval.I always check to see if its active.It doesn't matter to me if its large or small. No rejection or approval notice given.

I've never had an experience like that. But I've only joined three or maybe four forums that had restricted membership. Each time was on a forum where I had already conversed with the owner or a staff member, here on the support forum. And each time my registration was approved within a day if not within an hour or two.

But I certainly can empathize with the frustration of being left wondering. And I think that sort of behavior casts a dark shadow on ProBoards forums in general.

May 18, 2019 17:07:46 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

Why do this if an admin isn't going to keep up to-date on this?

In some cases it might be a situation where the only staff member with the ability to approve registrations is away from the forum for an extended period of time and they didn't anticipate a long absence. Or they might have botched their notifications and aren't receiving notifications for pending registrations.

Or maybe they just don't shiv a git. It's entirely possible some forum owners know that they're leaving some people hanging whose email addresses they don't recognize, but they even care that they're being inconsiderate and irresponsible. They're just too lazy to make a decision to approve or reject.

[Michelangelo "Spike" Scarlatti]

May 18, 2019 17:07:46 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

How do you feel about admin approving new members? I have tried joining several forums and been waiting weeks and months even for approval.I always check to see if its active.It doesn't matter to me if its large or small. No rejection or approval notice given.

Why do this if an admin isn't going to keep up to-date on this?

I do this, but if I wasn't on planning on staying active I would either give the power to another staff member of the forum or remove the option where I have to approve a new member. 

[STLUEE]

I appreciate everyones input. if I didn't approve prospective new members I would remove the request ,so it wont show on the Forum Accounts list (as pending) Even though we don't knoww one another its the polite thing to do.Let them know don't leave them hanging.

[Kami]

Honestly it doesn't matter to me, but the forums I join tend to let me know somewhere in their information why it's required + an expected time to wait + an alternate contact. They're generally RP related (the approvals are used to ask a questions to confirm you read the rules), or forums based on video game communities that require your game handle (so they can confirm your identity).

[Scott]

There are valid points on both sides of whether to use Restricted Registration or not. With the new feature to "assign new members to a user group" upon registration, this does offer some additional options in vetting new members and their intentions. Having an open registration, this new feature can control new member access to categories, boards and custom pages. Granted, access can be controlled with ranks, but ranks can be circumvented if the new user makes enough posts - where as the group option is fixed.


When using the Restricted Registration (or Guest Musts Login) option, I personally feel it's a plus to include a message so the new/potential member (or guest) knows what to expect.

[Reya]

To be honest, I feel like it depends on your forum, what you want for it, and how popular it is. If you're just starting off and want some new members, I would probably advise against putting in restricted registration, it might be off-putting for people on the fence about joining and tends to come off as being a little picky. However, if its a personal site you're admin of or a site that has had a small community for a long time, restricted registration might be a better idea. Also, if you're a big site and have had troubles with trolls in the past, restricting registration can help get remove these trolls as people can probably tell your site is active and changes are you as staff are as well.

[Emily]

Never seen the point of admin approval but each to their own.

If you'e been getting spammers or something a lot and you are going to be offline for awhile like sleeping then maybe.

[bigballofyarn]

May 14, 2020 4:45:18 GMT -8 Emily said:

Never seen the point of admin approval but each to their own.

If you'e been getting spammers or something a lot and you are going to be offline for awhile like sleeping then maybe.

Some forums are frequently the target of attack.  New forums and successful forums are often attacked because there are mean people out there who want to see forums fail.  I've had administrator approval enabled for a few years and it honestly keeps everyone at ease. No one has to worry about a surprise attack and/or having to clean up a mess after the fact. Any member who has a genuine interest in a forum won't mind having to wait for the administrator to click "approve."  It's definitely not for everyone, and that's more than fine.  From a member's perspective, I can understand wanting to join and post immediately. However, from an administrator's perspective, I also understand wanting to protect my current members.

[ScottCool]

I think this scares off members personally. I only see the use if you have a closed off forum for certain reasons and don't want just anyone joining in. If you are a new forum looking for growth I don't see the point. At that point beggars can't be choosers for the activity. It's scared me off of several forums that I wasn't 100% on joining. There's been a few times I wasn't 100% interested on a forum and being able to join and immediately jump in has kept me around.

[dragonfli]

Jul 2, 2020 4:19:27 GMT -8 @loverofcatsandfooty said:

May 18, 2019 17:07:46 GMT -8 STLUEE said:

How do you feel about admin approving new members? I have tried joining several forums and been waiting weeks and months even for approval.I always check to see if its active.It doesn't matter to me if its large or small. No rejection or approval notice given.

Why do this if an admin isn't going to keep up to-date on this?

I do this as i was told that it helps keep the trolls at bay. 
It works too. Because once you have somebody trolling you they need to find a way to stop that behaviour. If they don't then you can leave them waiting and eventually they can't see the point of trolling

it's good to see admins who care. There are some who actually make it a point to brag about open registations just to spite other admins. To me it's like saying, "Come here and spam. I don't care about my members." I don't mind restricted registrations at all. The only thing that I can see being annoying is the blue screen where guests must log in.

[ZandraJoi]

I think once you get bigger, you can make that an option to approve new members. That is one of my goals as I want my forum to be a safe place & have more intimate conversations. But I'd have questions to ask them to be sure they were a fit. I would not leave them hanging. I think that's rude.

[Former Member]

When I first joined ProBoards I had registrations open but now I find it much safer to manually approve them.

What I don't find appealing is the "Guests must log in"