Can't View my Own Profile - Freshman Lounger

[rslitman]

I've been a well-behaved Netizen for 12 years, but I know that there are a lot of not-so-well-behaved ones that have made life tough for us well-behaved ones.

So now I have to wait out 7 days before I end this "tenderfoot" status and can use quoting in my messages (I think that's why I wasn't able to post a reply to a reply to my first-ever message here; once I got rid of the quoted part, it posted okay).

And now I can't even see my own Profile! Is that correct? I can't see what others can see about me?

Here's the message I'm getting:

rslitman, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
Your account may be awaiting activation. Check your e-mail for an Activation Confirmation link.
Your account has been temporarily restricted for violations of the Forum Policy, in which case you should have received a Private Message from a member of the Forum Staff. Please check your Private Messages and respond as appropriate.

*** end of error message ***

I've already activated my account. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to have posted this and a few other messages.

I don't have any Private Messages, so if I got restricted, I didn't get such a message.

[Jesse Hollington]

Hi and welcome to iLounge.

We don't have any specific restrictions on quoting messages, but we do have a restriction on posting URLs in order to prevent spam and phishing links, which we've been having a problem with, so if the message you were quoting contained a URL, that would likely be the reason you were unable to post it.

As for the profile viewing restrictions, unfortunately the system doesn't distinguish between your viewing your own public profile and viewing other users' profiles, and again we have had to restrict this as there were people signing up just to "farm" our membership listings.

It is unfortunate that we have had to take such steps, but the spammers and other miscreants will try all sorts of tricks, and the latest round of phishing scams and links to malware have forced us to tighten these restrictions down even further.

[rslitman]

I can see my profile now. The "tenderfoot" period expired just around this time a week ago (and I hit the 10-message requirement long before that), but I've been too busy to come around. I'm posting this partially to see if I am still shown as being a "Freshman Lounger". On other boards using this type of software, my posts get updated retroactively when my status changes, but I'm still seeing myself as a Freshman Lounger on the messages I've already posted.

Is having a signature the thing I have to wait two years to qualify for? I did a bit of searching around for the place to enter one, but I didn't find it right away.

I'm editing my original post. I'm still listed as a "Freshman Lounger".

But I do have Edit capability now.

Then again, looking at my original message, posted the day I joined, it looks like I had Edit capability then, too!

[Jesse Hollington]

Actually just looked at the title hierarchy.... Freshman Lounger doesn't change until the 25-post level, so that's probably why you're still seeing that as your title. Once it changes, it will be updated on all of your existing posts as well, since that information is displayed dynamically based on your current user profile (the same would apply if you changed other information like your location).

As for the signature, you should be able to edit/modify your signature by going to the "Shortcuts and Settings" menu at the top and selecting "Edit Signature" You can also find it in your user settings at the top, right above "Edit EMail & Password"

The only thing that remains restricted is the use of avatars, which is a bonus privilege that we grant to our senior, established members as a sort of small reward for their long-time contributions to the iLounge community. The threshold for this is 1500 posts and one year of membership.

The ability to edit your own posts is not specifically restricted to any membership level, although we do prevent posts from being edited more than 24 hours after they were originally posted in order to avoid "historical revisionism."

[rslitman]

Originally Posted by jhollington

Actually just looked at the title hierarchy.... Freshman Lounger doesn't change until the 25-post level, so that's probably why you're still seeing that as your title. Once it changes, it will be updated on all of your existing posts as well, since that information is displayed dynamically based on your current user profile (the same would apply if you changed other information like your location).

Thanks for the clarification. If my counting is correct, the message I'm working on now is going to be #22.

As for the signature, you should be able to edit/modify your signature by going to the "Shortcuts and Settings" menu at the top and selecting "Edit Signature" You can also find it in your user settings at the top, right above "Edit EMail & Password"

Thanks for pointing out where to find this. I was looking along the row of options that appears with an orange background at the top of each page - the one that starts with "News", then continues with "Reviews & Accessories", and ends with "Shop". I belong to a forum for the brand of car that I own which has an option in an equivalent bar called "User CP" that we can use to update our information. But even then, it took me MONTHS to figure out what that was for - I THINK the "CP" stands for "Control Panel"! But I do know now that that is where I can update my information there, and I will try to remember to pull down "shortcuts + settings" to get at my information here.

The only thing that remains restricted is the use of avatars, which is a bonus privilege that we grant to our senior, established members as a sort of small reward for their long-time contributions to the iLounge community. The threshold for this is 1500 posts and one year of membership.

Considering that I don't know what an "avatar" is, even though I see the word a lot these days, I probably don't need one now. (I think it has something to do with an image or a photo.) I consider myself to be a prolific poster in the various message boards where I hang out, but I can't imagine posting 1,500 messages in a year.

The ability to edit your own posts is not specifically restricted to any membership level, although we do prevent posts from being edited more than 24 hours after they were originally posted in order to avoid "historical revisionism."

I appreciate being able to edit my posts after I've had a chance to read them iin order to correct typos or incorrect information. I can probably live with not being able to edit them after 24 hours, but I think a more logical time period may be one month.

What's the problem with "historical revisionism" anyway?

[Jesse Hollington]

Originally Posted by rslitman

Thanks for pointing out where to find this. I was looking along the row of options that appears with an orange background at the top of each page - the one that starts with "News", then continues with "Reviews & Accessories", and ends with "Shop".

Well, the default vBulletin layout "out-of-the-box" puts a control bar at the top, and you will see that on many other forums. The layout for this version has been highly customized, and the bar at the top is for iLounge.com as a whole and primarily links to content on the main iLounge site.

Considering that I don't know what an "avatar" is, even though I see the word a lot these days, I probably don't need one now. (I think it has something to do with an image or a photo.) I consider myself to be a prolific poster in the various message boards where I hang out, but I can't imagine posting 1,500 messages in a year.

The avatar is the badge or graphic that you will see on the left-hand side of posts made by those users, immediately below the user name/title. The forum staff had avatar-like badges that represent our roles, and you'll occasionally see custom ones from some of the other senior members.

In general, however, we felt that allowing both badges and avatars for the majority of members generally results in bogging down the forums and making them look "cluttered" so we decided to standardize on signatures as the preferred approach for "personalization." Avatars were added as an exception simply so we could give something extra to our long-time contributing members.

I appreciate being able to edit my posts after I've had a chance to read them iin order to correct typos or incorrect information. I can probably live with not being able to edit them after 24 hours, but I think a more logical time period may be one month.

What's the problem with "historical revisionism" anyway?

Put simply, there have been issues in the past with posts in certain threads -- usually those that involve heated debate, or in some cases classified ad postings -- where users have gone back and edited a previous post in an attempt to claim that they originally said something different than they otherwise did, or simply edited a post to remove their content entirely, thus significantly damaging the continuity of the thread. Deleted posts can be easily tracked and undeleted (if necessary) by forum staff, but it's much more difficult to do that when somebody simply goes back and edits out the entire content of their post and re-saves it as a blank post.

[n1kn4k]

So when do you stop being a freshman lounger?

[Jesse Hollington]

At 25 posts. However this really has no bearing in anything other than your user title, which changes to "Junior Member" at that point, although you can customize your title anytime after the new member probationary period, which lasts for 7 days and requires a minimum of 10 posts -- this is "regular member" status, and is a restriction that was put in place primarily to combat spam accounts.