Benefits of Registering and Posting

I thought I'd make a little list of the "technical" benefits (as opposed to the community / educational / learning benefits) of registering for the forums and becoming an active member.

If you choose not to register for the forums for the sake of privacy, you can do the following as someone who is Unregistered:

• Can View Forums
• Can View Thread Content
• Can View Others' Threads
• Can Use Email to Friend
• Can Download Attachments
• Can Search Forums
• Can See Deletion Notices

Mostly, you can browse around and enjoy most of what there is to offer.

If you register for the forums, but fail to confirm your email address, you only have the same options as an unregistered user.

Please note that we delete your registration information if you never confirm your email address and do not log in for a period of 3-6 months.


If you register for the forums and confirm your email, you can do the following as a Registered User:

In addition to the above:

• Can Post Threads
• Can Reply to Own Threads
• Can Reply to Others' Threads
• Can Edit Own Posts
• Can Use the Private Message System.
• 10 stored Private Messages.
• Can Upload Attachments (up to 10 MB)
• Can View Member Info.
• Can Edit Own Profile
• Can Subscribe to Threads via Email
• Can Subscribe to Forums via Email
• Can Toggle the Display of the Right Column Sidebar On or Off
• Can Access the Members-Only area with the forums Conversation and Chat, Tech Talk and Sourcing Plants.
• Can Vote on Polls
• Can Set Self to Invisible Mode

Please note that we delete your user information if you have never posted and have not logged within the previous 6-9 months. If you join up just to have forum subscriptions, it is important that you post at least once.


After a combination of 3 posts and being a forum member for 2 days, you can do the following as a Registered Plus user:

In addition to the above:

• Can Post Polls.
• 100 stored Private Messages.
• Can Deny Private Message Read Receipt Request.
• Up to 3 PM recipients.
• Can Email Other Forum Members
• Can View Who’s Online.
• Can Upload Custom Avatars
• Can Use Plain Text Signatures.
• Can View Others' Profile Pictures.

Improved from above:

• Can upload "unlimited" attachments.

After a combination of 100 posts and being a forum member for 20 days (or at the forum admin's discretion), you can do the following as a Contributor:

In addition to the above:

• Username in bold on some lists (e.g., Who’s Online).
• Can Open / Close own threads.
• Can Move own threads.
• Can Post/Edit/Delete Events on Calendar.
• Can Use Custom Title
• Can Use BBCode (including URLs) in Signatures
• Viewable on Show Groups
• Can Start New Threads in the Stumpers Forum
• Can Attach Zip Files

Improved from above:

• 400 stored Private Messages.
• Up to 5 PM recipients.

More soon - I haven't added the Links Manager permissions yet, and I've something else up my sleeve.

 

Hi Daniel-
I am a "seedling", I noticed. What are the other rungs on the ladder, so to speak. I know "plant enthusiast" is the highest. You must have had to post like 500 times to be that. Are there different levels coresponding to number of posts or am I imagining it?
Thanks

 

Hello Erica,

See this thread

 

Updated information for unregistered users and users who have not confirmed their email addresses.

 

Transferred ability to see member profiles from "registered plus" to "registered" usergroup.

 

Updated: changed promotion from "Registered" to "Registered Plus" to require 2 days + 3 posts (instead of the old 5 days + 5 posts).

 

Updated:

Changed Registered Plus User signature abilities to:

"Can Use Plain Text Signatures."

Changed Contributor User signature abilities to:

"Can Use BBCode (including URLs) in Signatures."


This will be enforced via code when the latest version of the forum software is installed.

 

Doubled number of private messages for registered plus and contributor user groups.

 

Changed time requirements to reach Contributor status from 30 days to 20 days (# of posts stay the same).

 

There are PHP scripts that your webmaster can install, which will automatically cut down the file size of large images, since a lot of people don't know how to do this before uploading them.

 

tipularia, what are you addressing with this comment?

 

Changed:

to:

(so as to allow people to have more postings available to them before the ability to start a new thread in the General Gardening Q&A (for non-PNW gardeners) gets locked).

 

Thank you, Daniel, nice to see you on here!

 

Changed private messaging system a little bit.

Private messaging is now available to all registered users as opposed to only those with 3 posts / 2 days registered.

This means that (for other users), you may get the occasional private messaging spam.

You can use the "report this message" feature to inform administrators of spammy private messages.