To better protect our members and to help comply with the UK Online Safety Act we have made some changes to the user groups, mainly the "Kouhai" group.
Previously, "Kouhai" was the lowest level member group which all new members joined upon registering, and members would remain in this group unless they received a promotion to "Sempai" or became a staff member.
This has resulted in two major problems, firstly a large number of dead accounts in the "Kouhai" group and it meant that any new members automatically received a full set of permissions upon registering, including ability to post images or send private messages. This is simply too risky given the current state of the internet, the sheer number of bots, AI and spammers.
Therefore, all new registrations will be put into the "Registered" group, this has reduced permissions, mainly no ability to post images, links or contact other members via private message. They also cannot use signatures or the profile system. Once the member maintains a post count of 10 or more posts and been a member for 30 days, they will be promoted to "Kouhai". What does "maintain a post count of 10" mean? It means that if a post is deleted, the post count will go down, therefore making 10 spam posts which get deleted will not count and they will remain in the "registered" group. Note that 10 spam posts *may* result in other action by the staff separately to this, as appropriate.
Existing members of the "Kouhai" group that do not have a post count of 10 or more will now find themselves in the "Registered" group. We have discovered we have a large number of accounts that fall into this category, and we urge those members to become active again on the forum, especially those that currently have a post count of zero. We may, in the future impose a policy of deleting accounts that have zero posts and a long period of inactivity.
Finally, I would like to remind all members, should you have any issues, or experience anyone sending or posting anything inappropriate or other behaviour, or receive any form of hate speech, threats or any form of unwanted sexual attention, to please, immediately report it, either in the support forum, via private message to a staff member, to myself, or by using the contact form. You can also use the "report" buttons located next to most content if you feel that item should be removed.
Previously, "Kouhai" was the lowest level member group which all new members joined upon registering, and members would remain in this group unless they received a promotion to "Sempai" or became a staff member.
This has resulted in two major problems, firstly a large number of dead accounts in the "Kouhai" group and it meant that any new members automatically received a full set of permissions upon registering, including ability to post images or send private messages. This is simply too risky given the current state of the internet, the sheer number of bots, AI and spammers.
Therefore, all new registrations will be put into the "Registered" group, this has reduced permissions, mainly no ability to post images, links or contact other members via private message. They also cannot use signatures or the profile system. Once the member maintains a post count of 10 or more posts and been a member for 30 days, they will be promoted to "Kouhai". What does "maintain a post count of 10" mean? It means that if a post is deleted, the post count will go down, therefore making 10 spam posts which get deleted will not count and they will remain in the "registered" group. Note that 10 spam posts *may* result in other action by the staff separately to this, as appropriate.
Existing members of the "Kouhai" group that do not have a post count of 10 or more will now find themselves in the "Registered" group. We have discovered we have a large number of accounts that fall into this category, and we urge those members to become active again on the forum, especially those that currently have a post count of zero. We may, in the future impose a policy of deleting accounts that have zero posts and a long period of inactivity.
Finally, I would like to remind all members, should you have any issues, or experience anyone sending or posting anything inappropriate or other behaviour, or receive any form of hate speech, threats or any form of unwanted sexual attention, to please, immediately report it, either in the support forum, via private message to a staff member, to myself, or by using the contact form. You can also use the "report" buttons located next to most content if you feel that item should be removed.
