If possible, I would opt for a review of the current forum limitations. Affecting new members, these folks have a really hard time reaching out for the user to user help and I would fear that quite some eventually give up, on the product/company.  :-/

There is nothing worse than climbing the registration hurdles (captcha anyone?) while then being limited to using only existing threads or even running the risk of getting banned.

As a hopefully constructive suggestion, I would name the method of asking for the product code, once, to then instantly receive the rights to post in the corresponding forum sections. Third parties use codes too which can be verified. If this is too much to ask for, I shall point to other forums keeping spammers in check while not generating cases like the following.

As a recent example case of a spoiled customer, take this one. I do admit that I understand some of the (initial) reactions and I don't see how CS benefits from that kind of outcome as a company. http://forum.avsim.net/topic/456186-b777-climbs-extremely-slow

On that case. Can we help the guy please?  :(

We have moved to new forum, some functions will be modified.
Actually we see no issues with requestiong having 10 posts before starting new topic or forcing to post in existing topics (for technical issues boards). And we will not ask for a product code just because we allow anyone to use this forum, not just our customers.

Captain Sim 2 wrote on Nov 27^th, 2014 at 11:14pm:

Actually we see no issues[...]

Out of interest. How would you actually measure the impact this regulation has on legitimate customers looking for help?

For legitimate customers there is a Technical Support Section, this Forum is just not for support but more a place for people to help people. And we do not want bots to bother people here.

Thanks for answering.

I think that the Technical Support Section (you mean the ticket system, right?) is the one triggering people to seek for user to user help. At least that's what I get from checking other forums and reading people's reports.


Quote:

this Forum is just not for support but more a place for people to help people

Agreed. Hence my concerns on people being unable to find this very help due to the way CS considers everyone a bot. This starts with the captcha and doesn't end when a new user is trying to post, while then running into the limitations.

Since other forums successfully handle the bot/spam case and allow their users to find help, I considered this thread a heads-up.. for you.  :)


To add, since introducing the new bot/spam measures, the CS forums literally went silent. This lead me to ask how one gauges the impact since I feared (still do) that this silence is regarded as "see? No complains!" as opposed to wondering about the causes.

I was a moderator on a big hardware forum and until you've done that job you just can't imagine the numbers of spammers out there. I deleted so many accounts it's not funny.
It's a constant daily attack, wake up and start banning before coffee!

That's why they (CS) do it and I understand.
Maybe they can revisit this in 6 months or so because once you start anti-spam measures they go away. However they WILL find you again... >:(

Yes you are SO right. That is why after many years experience of dealing with spammers we found what we consider the most effective way of doing it. Thank you all for understanding.

Mind you, I didn't question the amount of spammers.

Instead, I was wondering if Captain Sim understood that "effective" countermeasures tend to affect more than spam accounts as can be seen by how active the CS forums are since introducing them. I'll leave it to the readers to decide if the answers provided show any awareness regarding the issue. (my question as to how the impact is measured wasn't answered btw)

From trying to help the folks in other forums, in threads or via PM, I can not attest any decent (problem solving) performance to the CS ticket system and already pointed out that the access to the forums isn't something a new member perceives as easy.

So my case is closed.  :) I was am actually worried about all the others.

Thank you!
We are open for all comments, if there are issues with forum anybody can reach us using the Contact Us form, we will gladly help.