Limiting Members?

[Gregoshi]

Hi cstuart. Thanks for finally speaking up. As you might imagine, you are not the first to comment on our membership system. Fear not, it is not in place to limit membership or to make us an elite "club". It serves a couple of purposes.

First, it funnels most new patrons through this forum which is indeed an "entrance hall". It is a focal point for new patrons to meet each other and for existing members to meet the new patrons. The idea is that this is a less intimitating environment for the new people since many others here are new as well. It also gives the staff and veterans a place to meet you, help you, get you comfortable with our forums.

Second, it allows us to weed out the spammers and troublemakers from ruining our members' experiences in the main forums. Our members appreciate the level of interaction and the friendly nature of the discussions that the screening process promotes. Most troublemakers simply don't have the patience and can't be bothered with going through the "junior patron" routine.

The classic example of why we have this system was from a few years ago when there was a thread discussing gun control in what is now call the Tavern. Word of this thread got out and our forum was invaded by non-gamers with strong opinions on gun control. The Tavern was not a pleasant forum to read at that time. There was lots of long posts spewing out slanted, flaming political rhetoric - it was not a pretty sight. Under our current system, these "outsiders" could not do that and would probably not wait around for promotion to get access to the Tavern.

The only real "limit" on membership is completely in your control. Show the Entrance Hall mods that you can interact well with others (no flaming or spamming) and there will be no problem in becoming a full member of these forums. So, get involved with some of the discussions in the Entrance Hall or start your own if you'd like. The moderators can only get to know you if you post (again, don't spam).

[KillerKadugen]

Trust me when I say that you don't want to get involved in the tavern backroom at all. The front room is cool, but the backroom is a dangerous, treacherous place to say anything. Other than that, the rest of this site is an awfully nice place to discuss some of the best games of all time. Post responsibly, and the moderators will notice you in no time.