Due to recent spam activities, some changes have been made to the Registered Users group, This group is comprised of members with less than 40 posts, so basically new users.
The Registered Users group has been changed to the following:
- No signature privileges
- Unable to post attachments
- Unable to send Private Messages, but may receive them and respond to them
The removal of signature privileges is due to the fact that many were signing up, putting spam links in their sigs, and then making loads of short posts all over the place to get exposure. Spam is spam, and we will not tolerate it here. Links are allowed in sigs, but not when the only purpose of that person posting is to get there spam links in front of other members.
The removal of the ability to attach images stems from the same problem: spam. If a new member needs to show a picture to get help with a problem, it should be hosted with ImageShack, Photobucket, or another online host, and then linked.
Due to a recent couple of episodes of PM spam, the ability of new members to initiate PMs has been removed. New members can still receive PMs, and can respond to these, but that's all that they can do.
Please note: Anyone seen posting a lot of short posts to increase their post count to move up in usergroups will have their posts deleted, and may face disciplinary action, up to being banned for spamming the forums (depending on the situation).
If a member with more than 40 posts finds that their privileges have been affected, contact me. It is possible that your primary usergroup is showing as Registered User instead of the proper usergroup, and I will fix it.
**Addition**
Changes to avatar and signature privileges