I had some trouble posting my first ever message in the E24 section. I was trying to create a new thread about my E24 with a poll. I typed the message and clicked submit, which took me to the poll creation page. I filled that out and clicked submit again. I was then redirected back to the E24 forum but my post was nowhere to be found. I thought perhaps there was some glitch so I tried to post a new thread again but I was denied because it was a duplicate of one I had submitted in the previous 5 minutes. I thought maybe the poll creation was tripping me up so I started a new thread without any poll. After I successfully submitted the message I learned that my post was being held for moderator approval. I think holding all new threads for moderator approval is a bad move. It will certainly limit my interest in active discussion here on this forum. If you guys are having trouble with spammers or hostile behavior there are other ways of dealing with it. You can require a CAPTCHA for registration and you can have moderators deal with rules violations as necessary. I don't think BMWCCA can make a valid argument that there isn't enough manpower to effectively manage this forum, especially since BMWCCA has a HUGE member base of potential moderators and most forum software allows users to report posts that need moderator attention. BMWCCA has lost a lot of ground to other more established web forums that cater to BMW owners. BMWCCA could become the premier discussion forum for BMW owners and BMWCCA members alike, but issues like this will likely severely inhibit whatever potential it has.
Undoubtedly Bill Howard and/or the webmaster will have an answer for you. Fwiw, I (and presumably most others posting) haven't had a post held, it's posted immediately, as presumably yours was here. I haven't tried a poll, so my guess is either it's related to setting up a poll, or maybe a bug w/ that particular forum. Send an email to the webmaster if nothing else. Good luck -
I've made 3 posts this evening of which 2 were held for moderation. Not sure about your original post, but 2 of mine contained URLs and obviously 1 did not. The 1 without, got through instantly. I hope this is just short term though. The admins/moderators of the forums should have enough faith in their membership to police themselves. Each post made has a 'Report Post' button should someone find the content of a post to be inappropriate. Rather than hold up people from posting, why don't you encourage your membership to use this tool to assist you in moderating the forums? edit: And now this being the 4th post of the day, of which contained no URL and it got posted right away.
Your post in the E24 forum is now up. This may come as a shock, but some users of the Web are using our site to try to post spam and porn. So we dialed in some corrective filters that trap some posts especially the initial several posts from new members and/or if there are trigger words. If one opines that those new Sport Konis give a ride stiffer than [insert name of male potency drug], likely that will wind up being in the moderation queue also.
Thank you. To prevent future confusion, perhaps there could be a warning that states new threads may be held for moderation for up to 24 hours or something to that effect. Because of the poll creation, I never received such a notice. No, it's not a shock. But every other forum I frequent is capable of dealing with this annoyance without resorting to draconian measures. I think there are much more effective means at dealing with this minor threat. I appreciate the hard work you put into running the place, but if every thread like mine gets held for moderation than you will either find yourself very busy approving content in your moderation queue or people will simply give up and not participate here. Don't assume that just because the BMWCCA is big and mighty that people will simply fold to its way of doing things. Internet users can be fickle but I think the balance should favor trust and ease of use. As I said earlier, BMWCCA is far behind the curve compared to more established BMW forums and they have a long ways to catch up. You have a huge group of members that may potentially participate in this discussion forum, but first you have to convince them that your forum is of good value and win them away from the other forums where they may already have a significant community presence.
