The Neighborhood Has Just Gone To The Wolves

[twowolves80]

New member, just joined, yadda yadda.

Couple of things.

I'm a regular over on nexusmods and on dA. So this isn't my first forum rodeo. With that in mind, I have several bits of feedback (that may or may not have hitherto-unknown solutions).

1. Wasn't happy to find that I couldn't alter my profile immediately. Instead, I keep winding back up on the page that tells me I have to post five times. Really? Just to have an avatar? I fail to see how that would prevent spam or abuse.

"Oh, no, he changed his avatar!"
"How will we ever find that dastardly spammer again!?"

So I guess this is post numero uno, then. I get the idea behind wanting to keep the mouth-breathing sock-monkeys from spamming up the site and all, but I don't think that's a related issue--spammers don't waste time with avatars and tweaking their profiles.

2. The Captcha system. Omg, the Captcha. And the worst part is, it's not even your fault. But is there a way to permanently disable the captcha requirement for every single post? A paywall of some kind, perhaps? Nexus has a one-time, $2 paywall, and I'm hoping there's something similar here to turn off ads/disable captcha as a registered member.

That aside, I'm just getting back into fantasy cartography after a several year hiatus, and my ProFantasy Campaign Cartographer software is sitting there collecting dust because it's very unwieldy and non-inuitive. A disappointment all around. I prefer drawing/drafting by hand, and have this expensive, ginormous light table sitting here going to waste, and it's high-time to put it to use.

Ideally, I'd like to find some icon images that are as open-platform as possible so that I can scan maps, and just drag and drop stuff on top of the scanned image (it's a lot easier to lay out a map by hand, not to mention faster, than using CC). Was getting pretty good at doing extrapolations/floor plans from the Star Wars Cross-Sections book before I stopped.

So, cheers, I guess, to my first post. I just have to find four more topics to post in so I can alter my profile finally.

[twowolves80]

[ d e l e t e d ]

[ChickPea]

Hi twowolves and welcome.

I'm sorry you're dissatisfied with the way we run things around here, but the restrictions on new members are necessary because we were being deluged with spam. Even now, we get spammers signing up every day and trying to create spammy profiles. They rarely post in the forum (so they don't get banned immediately) but they fill their profiles with links to garbage sites and porn. There were hundreds of these profiles at one point, because it's impossible for the moderators to keep an eye on every new signup, so we had to put some tools in place to restrict access for new members.

Your first five comments require manual approval by a Community Leader, so there may be a small delay before they show. After you've made five posts, your comments will show immediately. You'll also be able to amend your profile and there should be no more Captchas. You've now made two comments, plus your complaint via the contact form (which also counts). So three down, two to go. Perhaps you can make some nice comments now you understand why we do what we do? We didn't put these restrictions in place just to annoy new members. Trust me, they're necessary.

I hope you'll enjoy the site more once you're a full member.

[Azélor]

I understand it can be frustrating but I believe it is worth it. The Guild is a very good community with plenty of resources for mapping.

A site hacked or swarmed by spammers can get destroyed if left unchecked.
There was a game forum I was active on a few months back that had no security measures and too few moderators to handle it.
In the last days of the forum, every time I logged in there was sometimes 50+ pages of new threads and hundreds of messages full of BS. New fake members kept coming everyday and they flooded the site.
Members like me were pleading the admin to put a mandatory Captcha or something, but nothing was done and in the end, the forum had to be closed.
Nobody could use the site in these conditions.

The measures weren't always here but the Guild has been attacked in the past and I am aware that some data was lost in the process (most of the first Collaborative world building project and possibly other things were lost).

[twowolves80]

Perhaps you can make some nice comments now you understand why we do what we do? We didn't put these restrictions in place just to annoy new members. Trust me, they're necessary.

I hope you'll enjoy the site more once you're a full member.

Nice comments? Hmm...I like that the default intro scheme isn't blindingly white. I take it we can change this after we become full members? I'd still recommending putting a $2 paywall up for ads and captcha unless you think spammers would pay that--I'd gladly pay.

I understand why you do it from the go--I just can't believe the spammers' analytics lead them to conclude that a site dedicated to cartography would be a good place to advertise porn. lmao "Ooooh, baby! I love the way you draw that directional rosette! Mmmm! You're compass work is so hawt!"

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Anyhoo...It looks like a cool site, but until I can get this desk installed finally (so I can use my frelling light table finally), I won't really be able to do as much as I want. dA ticked me off with their updates that deleted a lot of my pdfs I had uploaded. I used to do a lot more map-making when I was playing tabletop games, but since I moved back home, I know nobody anymore and life happened, so I haven't done it in a while. This is why I much prefer drawing by hand. I've yet to find software that is truly intuitive and doesn't have a steep learning curve that can also do everything I want. ...gotta get a Wacom, preferably a Cintiq. lol Or something similar.

Now...where is the wolf emoticon...?

[Redrobes]

I dont think spammers run analytics or care what kind of topic the forum its showing so long as there is footfall on it. We have had it all and I dont recall any obviously spam posts relating to mapping. This site enjoys a healthy and vibrant cheery tone to it quite unusual for online forums tbh and I dont think that is something were going to give up to the spammers. Theres lots of map criticisms going on all the time of course but we have to keep it to technical points and be mindful that its real peoples work and surprisingly we have not had to ban too many people who are not spammers or trolls. But we get rid of many spammers all the time and has become easier to the point of necessary if they have an introductory hurdle to pass to get in so you can discover their motives before people see the stuff they are hawking. Its all a balance of course but after 5 posts then you get a nice pleasnt spam free experience and I think thats something that 5 posts and a few restrictions is a price worth paying.

[Mouse]

I think you may be taking things a little too personally, Michael?

We all had to go through the same checks to make sure that we were human

Things just are the way that they are right now after years of testing and trying different things. This is simply the way that has been found to be most effective. That is all. Nothing less, and nothing more.

I am sorry to hear that you had such a bad time with my favourite software. Maybe you will get along better with your new Wacom. I know I love mine

I'm looking forward to your first map!

[twowolves80]

Nah, nothing personal. I have raging OCD, only not the cool, flip-the-light-switch-thirty-times kind. So I like things efficient. I don't care about the ads--that's what AdBlock is for. Sorry, guys, nothing personal, I just don't like the "pop-in" effect for the banners showing up after the page loads so when you are about to click on something, suddenly, you've clicked on the banner that just appeared. I haven't really noticed that here, and as I said, I do like the neutral color scheme--much easier on the eyes than glaring white. I only asked if there will be an option to change the scheme once the fifth post is posted as I noticed there seems to be space where there are options missing from the combo box to change the schemes.

Favorite software...? There were a couple of things I found very unwieldy about it:

1. Vector-based. Normally, this would be fine, if you were able to set a reference scale. Instead, you have to apply the scale after everything is drawn, which is backwards to hand drawing. Then, how do you print to a specific scale? More needless complication. Part of the problem, I think, is that it is vector-based. This makes it a higher learning curve than it need be. There's no way to "set" the maximum zoom to establish a baseline to estimate scale by.

2. Only mathematicians need apply. Yeah, I was trying to work with Joaquim de Ravenbell (another of the ProFantasy artists who is a mathematician), and everything he was saying was like Greek. In fact, I think several of the variables were actually Greek letters.

My Wacom...lol Me owning a wacom is hilarious for a number of reasons, none of which I'll bring up here. After all, why should we all be miserable, right?

This should mark post number five, and I'm still willing to pay $2 or $5 to permanently disable the captchas and whatnot--I'd consider it an investment in a community I'd like to be a part of. The only reason I wanted immediate access to the profile is because I use my profiles like my workbench. Stuff I put up on them is more for me than anyone else so I can keep track of things (part of the untreated OCD--yay!).

[twowolves80]

Five posts are up, still no ability to edit my avatar or profile. *sigh*

[ChickPea]

The server script that moves you from new member to the regular user group runs once an hour. I'm not certain exactly what time it runs, but give it an hour and you'll have full privileges.