Change to MM access after 1st January 2024

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Associate
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Reduced risk of old insecure accounts being hacked and used for scams. Actively used accounts are less likely to have old leaked passwords or no 2FA.

Reduced risk of old unvalued accounts being used to scam without being worried about losing the account. Actively used accounts are more likely to hold value for the user.

Reduced likelihood of users only hanging around to use the forums as a trading post (and possibly reselling stuff elsewhere after chipping a bargain here).

Community perk is reinforced as a perk for the currently active community, not the community from 2005 who only login for using the market since 2008.

Just a few things that have been mentioned.

Disable old accounts after a period of inactivity solves one and two.

Making it more difficult to use the MM will result in the MM being used less, yes. But maybe not *only* by traders who abuse the system.

The last is the only one that OcUK have leaned into. But post count is a terrible metric.
 
Associate
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It's certainly stirred up the entitlement from some people, absolutely shocked at the bad attitude from some.

I would say the community will be a better place without them, but of course they were never really here in the first place.

If you mean me, then say it to my face. I have been here, I'm here now, I post when I have something to say. I do wonder what percentage of your 12,200 posts were genuinely "contributing to the community".

Hey, ho. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, much less the rules. Badly handled though IMO. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I'll leave it at that.
 
Man of Honour
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For me, it'll probably mean more buying brand new stuff (maybe not from OcUK) and either giving away or junking old stuff.

As I alluded to earlier, I've reached the time of life where I have enough money to satisfy my modest needs, but not enough time and energy. People pay for convenience - here's a (possibly controversial) thought - how about a small charge to access the MM in lieu of post count requirements?!

If I lose MM access for not "contributing" enough, then so be it. It may well end up being OcUK's loss, just as much as mine.
Most of the mods are volunteers.

Who would manage the payments? The unpaid mods? What system would be used? Who would deal with payment issues, disputes and refunds? How small or large should the price be, considering there will be a cost to OcUK by putting such a system in place. Introducing a paid system would be a lot of work.
 
Associate
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Most of the mods are volunteers.

Who would manage the payments? The unpaid mods? What system would be used? Who would deal with payment issues, disputes and refunds? How small or large should the price be, considering there will be a cost to OcUK by putting such a system in place. Introducing a paid system would be a lot of work.

Are you saying these rules are made entirely by the voluntary mods? And not influenced or dictated in any way by the OcUk shop? Seems unlikely to me.

OcUK must already have a significant hosting bill. They are also not a charity. Let's be real - the forums would not exist if they didn't channel traffic to the main website. Therefore the forums must have a net positive impact on OcUK's bottom line. What level of investment would justify that impact is something only OcUK financial staff will know, but I don't think it should be dismissed out of hand, just because there's a blunter object available.
 
Man of Honour
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Are you saying these rules are made entirely by the voluntary mods? And not influenced or dictated in any way by the OcUk shop? Seems unlikely to me.

OcUK must already have a significant hosting bill. They are also not a charity. Let's be real - the forums would not exist if they didn't channel traffic to the main website. Therefore the forums must have a net positive impact on OcUK's bottom line. What level of investment would justify that impact is something only OcUK financial staff will know, but I don't think it should be dismissed out of hand, just because there's a blunter object available.
Of course OcUK have a say in it. It's their forum and would probably have been instrumental in the change. But my understanding is that a lot of the people who perform the day to day moderation work are unpaid forum members who are invited to be mods.

The point I was making was that, if that's the case, then we would be expecting them to give up even more free time to administer payments.

Perhaps a mod can confirm or correct me.
 
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Commissario
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Hey, ho. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, much less the rules. Badly handled though IMO. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I'll leave it at that.
Why did you have nothing to say about it when it was announced over three months ago?

Most of the mods are volunteers.
Correction.
ALL of the mods are volunteers.

Are you saying these rules are made entirely by the voluntary mods? And not influenced or dictated in any way by the OcUk shop? Seems unlikely to me.
Yes.
I can think of maybe two or three instances over the years where the shop has 'dictated' anything and one of those was recently when there was a vote for changing the christmas forum logo.
 
Commissario
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Of course OcUK have a say in it. It's their forum and would probably have been instrumental in the change. But my understanding is that a lot of the people who perform the day to day moderation work are unpaid forum members who are invited to be mods.

The point I was making was that, if that's the case, then we would be expecting them to give up even more free time to administer payments.

Perhaps a mod can confirm or correct me.
All the Commissarios, Dons and Underbosses are unpaid volunteers. There's a very small handful of shop employees who have access to the mod areas but they are not involved in the day to day running of the forums in any way whatsoever. Most of those have the 'Shop Staff' tag and avatar.

The mod team meet with the shop staff regularly and I'm happy to call them my friends.

As for payments, there's not a whelk's chance in a supernova that will happen.
 
Associate
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Why did you have nothing to say about it when it was announced over three months ago?


Correction.
ALL of the mods are volunteers.


Yes.
I can think of maybe two or three instances over the years where the shop has 'dictated' anything and one of those was recently when there was a vote for changing the christmas forum logo.

I think I did. I seem to recall that I was shut-down in exactly the same way, with the same thinly-veiled accusations of free-loading rather than anyone really willing to debate the points that were raised. I faded away, as I will from this debate soon enough.

It is interesting that all the forums rules are made by the unpaid mod team though. That does subtly shift the emphasis of the arguments I think.

As for payments, there's not a whelk's chance in a supernova that will happen.

So be it. Just a suggestion.
 
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Commissario
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can someone explain why the post count went up 1st before the manda 15 posts in 90 days?
The post count requirements changed in January 2012, see here.
Then last year, we completed the ongoing clean-up of grandfathered in members who, in over ten years had still not reached the updated requirements, see here. We'd been working in the background on this for a couple of years.
The change we've made now is enforcing a rule that's been in place for a long time. It's something we'd been discussing in the background for quite a few years and it's only now with the updated forum software that we can implement it automatically.

I hope that helps.
 
Soldato
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The post count requirements changed in January 2012, see here.
Then last year, we completed the ongoing clean-up of grandfathered in members who, in over ten years had still not reached the updated requirements, see here. We'd been working in the background on this for a couple of years.
The change we've made now is enforcing a rule that's been in place for a long time. It's something we'd been discussing in the background for quite a few years and it's only now with the updated forum software that we can implement it automatically.

I hope that helps.
Sounds like the most reasonable, measured, slow paced decision ever when described like that. :p
 
Caporegime
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Awful rule, it just enforces the " SPAM MORE " be active over 90 days to gain access... So all those posts I've already made, and the years of access on OCUK means no access unless I post 15 times over 90 days?

Just change the rules for new users - You must be an active member over a certain period of time or something
 
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Soldato
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I'll be honest - my first reaction was "That's harsh". After all, I've been here 20 years and while not prolific had many several thousand posts in that time before growing disillusioned.

HOWEVER - It has given me the motivation to get more involved again and I've already found myself getting more involved in the forums once again so I can see why it was done.
 
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