Feedback Only active members will be able to report posts, use privileges, and be protected by our rules

Hello folks,

There have been too many members attempting to manipulate us to do their bidding with threats of not participating here (e.g. using their participation here as currency against us). This includes actions by members who do not normally participate here but who suddenly find the urge to participate heavily in the short term only to bombard us with requests for special treatment and then disparage us and threaten to quit when such special treatment is not granted. You can find a recent example of this here. We do not care if we are disparaged when we don't keep giving where it's not warranted, but we do care about attempts to manipulate us and this community, and it has reached a point where we have to nip it in the bud to ensure our continued impartial and neutral administration and moderation of this community.

So to end all such attempts to manipulate our administration of this site, our rules will only protect active members, only active members will be able to use the Signature and PM privileges they have unlocked, and only active members will be able to report posts to bring them to our attention for us to take action.

This means that if you want to assist our moderation of this community, and if you want to have access to the full features of this site, and if you want to be protected by the rules of this community, then you will have to give back to this community by being an active member of this community. This will ensure inactive members cannot suddenly pop in and attempt to manipulate us to do their bidding because they won't even be able to reach out to us through reports or PM's until they've become active members.

We will have to think carefully about what we consider to be active participation, but the criteria we are currently considering is:

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1) Made at least 1 post per week over the last 30 days.
AND
Either:
2a) Made at least 1 post per month with at least 50 posts made over the last 12 months if the member is over 1 year old.
OR
2b) Made at least 4 posts per month since the member registered if the member is less than 1 year old.
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That is an average of less than 1 post per week, so the bar would be set quite low to be considered "active". This change is meant to impact only those members who are genuinely not active here on a regular basis.

The criteria would be checked daily against each member and members that are "inactive" and meet the criteria would be switched to active, and members that are "active" but failed the criteria would be switched to active. So members will be switched back and forth between "active" and "inactive" whenever they meet or fail the criteria without any limits on how often they can be switched, and the criteria will be checked every day automatically.

The combination of conditions 1) and 2) above would ensure a member was active both recently and in the longer-term so that inactive members can't just pop in one day to flood the forum with posts just to be considered "active".

Note that inactive members will still have full posting privileges. This will only affect their ability to report posts, use their unlocked Signature and PM privileges, and be protected by our rules. Nothing else.

As a further thank you for believing in our mission of an independent, comprehensive, and uncensored gambling community and helping us become the #1 gambling forum, this requirement will not apply to Founding Members. This means Founding Members will always be protected by our rules, will always enjoy the full features of our site that they have unlocked, and will always be able to report posts to help us moderate this community whether they are active or not.

Once again, the purpose of this change is to ensure we cannot be manipulated with carrot-and-stick approaches by members that attempt to use their participation here as currency to try to get us to do their bidding. If you want to be protected by the rules of this community, then you will need to be an active and contributing member of this community. It's that simple.

So we will no longer entertain attempts to manipulate us and are turning that manipulation on its head by completely eliminating the threat of not participating here and putting the onus on those members instead.

We will update this thread once we have gone live with this change.

Thank you.