Are These Restrictions Necessary?

[EDsteve]

Hi admin (-team?),

i found this forum some weeks ago and i really love it. Now i see that there are more people like me outside

and now here comes the "BUT":-)

But why are the accounts that limited? I think this is too strict. No avatar, no upload to the gallery, stuff like this. To earn this digihitch mileage is a good idea, but in my opinion to strict.
I have a forum as well (much bigger than digihitch: www.diy-community.de ) and i think every member should feel comfortable and not surrounded with restrictions.

Well this is my oppinion. I will read and write here anyhow. But would be nice to get more freedom. Like we have on the road.

Keep on going
ED

[Salman]

Thanks for the feedback, Ed!

The restrictions you mentioned-- no photo uploading for new members, for example-- were put in place for these main reasons:

1. To avoid too many large images from filling up our disk space. The server space we have assigned to digihitch is not so big that we can have thousands of unique images uploaded by new members - some of whom will never return to the website.

2. digihitch does not make enough money to support a full-time webmaster or administrator. I manage the server and all technical aspects on a volunteer basis when I can. For this reason, the site is designed to be able to handle little to no maintenance for days at a time. (Hey, we editors/admins hit the road, too!)

3. to ENCOURAGE community. As we say in our FAQ, we use mileage as a point system that makes it easier to give more access to users based on their contribution to the website. This discourages people from treating digihitch like a myspace profile... one more ego page on the web filled with heavy-loading images and poorly constructed code.


digihitch has grown more since we first added some of these user restrictions, so I think it is time to lift some of them. We are able to assign more disk space and bandwidth to the site, and so registered users will benefit from this.

Thanks again for your ideas. It may not seem like it, but this website does receive over 50,000 unique visitors (not including robots, of course) each month. If more people are not using the forums, then maybe it is a problem of people not feeling like they have enough freedom on the site. I'll post some changes we're making to fix that soon!

[Raus]

I think you are doing an amazing job keeping this site up and running. I have seen it go through some pretty rough times and wondered what the point was.. But it's still up and moving after a few years now. Great job, Salman.

[EDsteve]

Okay, you are right. I had similar probs with my community and there are different ways to solve every problem. Mileage is one solution
Problem with mileage is that there are some users who only writes some posts to get more and more points. This fills up the forum with unnecessary posts.

Hehe... there is never a perfect solution to satisfy all users. I know this prob. You will find your way. I am just one of these users who are complaining about stuff they don't like

I know how much work it is. So keep on going.

ED

[Salman]

We have just added new features based on Ed's feedback (and some good encouragement by Raus!):


1. Upload Personal Photo -- now you can upload a photo of yourself to appear on your Road Profile page. Here's how:
[list:30dbf57ae3][*:30dbf57ae3]While logged in, go to your Road Profile (Account) page and click on the Edit Profile button.
[*:30dbf57ae3]Click the Photo/ Avatar tab.
[*:30dbf57ae3]You will see a list of options. From the drop down box that says "Upload or change my..." select Personal Photo
[*:30dbf57ae3]Enter a caption for your photo in the first box, then choose an upload method:
[*:30dbf57ae3] lets you upload from your computer --OR-- Option 2 lets you enter the URL (full web address) of a photo already on a website IF you have at least 10 digihitch miles.
[*:30dbf57ae3]After you have either browsed your computer for the photo (Option 1) or entered a full URL of an online photo (Option 2) click the Save Photo button
[*:30dbf57ae3]If all went well, you will see your new photo on the page. Clicking it will show you a bigger version of the photo. If there was an error, you will be told what went wrong. Make sure to double-check the size of the image you want to upload BEFORE starting. Photos that are too big will be automatically rejected. (Info on what is too big is on the page.)
[/list:u:30dbf57ae3]

2. Choose your gender to show up in forum posts and in your road profile. See how it looks by checking out one of my forum posts. Here's how to add your gender:
[list:30dbf57ae3][*:30dbf57ae3]Follow the first 2 steps above, getting to the Photo/ Avatar tab, then select Gender Icon from the drop down box.
[*:30dbf57ae3]Check the button next to the gender you want displayed.
[*:30dbf57ae3]By default, everyone starts with NOYB (None of Your Business). If you keep this selected, your gender will not show in forum posts or your road profile (not even the NOYB icon).
[*:30dbf57ae3]If you changed your gender, click the Save Gender button.
[*:30dbf57ae3]You will now see your new gender icon at the bottom right of the page, below your current photo and avatar.
[/list:u:30dbf57ae3]

Still working on some more new features. We'll announce them soon. In the meantime, hope to see a lot of digihitchers adding a photo!