New Members: Trial Membership

[Nick]

The trial membership system on this message board is a test of sorts, since it has not (to my knowledge) been used at a Zelda Classic fan community before. This particular system was borrowed from Sonic Retro, but systems similar to it are most likely present at other places on the Internet.

This topic exists to introduce new members to the trial member concept.

What is Trial Membership?

Trial membership consists of everyone that is within the trial member group. All new registrations are defaulted to this user group. While a user is within this group, most functionality available to ordinary members is available. However, there are some obvious differences.

The most apparent difference is that the site will react differently. When trial members upload content, it must go through a staff validation process before it can be accessible to everyone on the site. Full fledged members, on the other hand, have the benefit of instantaneous content uploading and accessibility.

The other main difference is that trial members have an allotment of 20 posts total. Once these 20 posts have been used, they will be moved to the "unvalidated members" group. This group will be explained later.

How does one become a regular member?

To become a regular member, you must participate in the forums. This participation must show off some form of intelligence and adherence to our forum rules. If you are shown to be an intelligent post contributor, then the staff will promote you to normal membership.

However, one must remember that they only have 20 posts in which to show this. Use them wisely!

What happens when someone becomes an unvalidated member?

This group contains members that were not promoted to full membership before their trial period was completed. Most of the permissions they were granted as trial members are (sometimes temporarily) revoked. They are still capable of submitting content on the site and sending private messages, but they can only view the same forums as guests without the ability to post.

It is not the end of the world if you end up in this group. It can mean quite a few things:

• The staff did not notice you while you were posting. The staff may notice you afterward and still promote you to full membership.
• The staff did not find your post quality satisfactory. We will usually notify you if this is the case, though.
• We are lazy?
  

In any of these cases, you are allowed to ask the staff if you did not receive any sort of notification. Use the PM system (which is still accessible). Note that if you bug us more than once about it, we may leave you unvalidated.

Can one try again?

After three months, an unvalidated member may request a second trial if they failed the first one. Note that this is the final chance to become a full fledged member, since a failure of a second trial would mean a lack of learning ability.

What are the "invitations" mentioned in the forum rules?

Invitations are situations when an existing full fledged member has vouched for your intelligence by an official request via private message to the administrators. This invitation is usually (but not always) provided upon or before your registration.

When a user is invited by another user, they immediately bypass the trial member period and are promoted to full fledged members. However, this is not to be taken lightly. If an invited member proves to not be member material (breaking rules enough to be banned) within three months, both the invited member and the member that invited him/her is also banned!

In other words, you must trust anyone that you officially invite.