Nursery for New Members

my paddy wagon is easier to understand than this.

Nursery for Fresh Flange

So you've just joined and you're wondering what the hell this nursery thing is all about and why this site has it when few to no other sites you've visited have such a thing.

Please read all of this post!

We had a few problems in the past with things like:
Spammers signing up and posting adverts
What makes a spammer a spammer when there's a classifieds section? The difference is whether those posting items for sale take part in the wider community... if they are doing that and the majority of their posts are not spam, then they're not a spammer... if all they do is sell stuff and have no interest in the community, then they're a spammer.
Spammers signing up and sending PMs to 60 or so people
Invasions from other forums, so basically mass trolling
Individual trolls
New people asking questions that have been asked and answered what feels like a hundred times already
New people starting little flame wars against themselves by asking such stupid questions that a quick search would've saved them embarrassment and spared their reputation
Those are a wide and varied set of problems, and we worked out that nearly all of them could be stemmed by just putting up an artificial obstacle for those joining the forums.

Effectively there is a cooling-off period in which new members should get acclimatised to the forum and get to see how it works, and the forum should get a moment to become familiar with the new person. We are basically forcing you to ease yourself in gently... but honestly, doing so is better for you, this place can be harsh so just go with it.

The name for this artificial period is "the nursery". Until you learn to walk here, you can't run.

And what does being in the nursery actually amount to?

Well members in the nursery can:
Search the forums
Reply to existing threads
Upload a profile picture (non-animated)
Join an existing social group
What nursery members can't do is:
Start new threads
Use Private Messaging
Have a custom avatar
Upload a animated profile picture
Edit their posts (they can't undo what they say)
Rate threads
Give reputation
Post on polls
Leave messages on profile pages
Anything else not explicitly granted to them above
What defines a "nursery member"?

It's pretty simple, you are no longer in the nursery when you have both:
Posted 3 times
Been on the site for 24 hours
And this is an automatic thing, as soon as that threshold is passed the system will promote you to full membership within an hour or two.

Now, a lot of people don't like the nursery. And that's very understandable, but let me just underline some qualities of this site that don't really exist elsewhere.

First up, moderators... we have none... not one, none. Other sites pride themselves on having 20 or 30 moderators, we just don't bother. We have an administrator, that's me VelocityBoy... but really I do the technical stuff like run the software and server and ensure that the place functions well and doesn't get blacklisted. What I don't do is to subjectively police the place. Point is, if we have no moderators we really do need a system that from the outset reduces the kind of work that leads to the creation of moderators... basically to reduce spam and trolling from the instant that a new member signs up.

Next up, jostling. Every forum has it's fair share of new members being initiated by the old timers by some friendly ribbing. But sometimes this can go too far, especially if (without searching first) you ask an oft-repeated, tired, or dumb question in your first post. It's not pleasant to watch new members get ripped to shreds, and really I'm doing you the biggest favour by forcing you to search first and look around before you ask... the guys here can be merciless towards the new, so say hello first and search thoroughly before you ask stuff. The result, yeah there's still some jostling, but not much, and the place is a hell of a lot friendlier for it and that is priceless.

Can you evade the nursery period?

Don't try. Really. It's a public forum which means everyone can see you do it, and if you post 5 meaningless posts in an attempt to sidestep the nursery chances are that someone will report you... when that happens, I will ban that account permanently. You're free to register again, but then you start the nursery again too. So don't try, we're not that dumb and as this is our one piece of moderation it's purposefully harsh, really, don't try.

But what if you're not a spammer, not a troll, not a internet and cycling newbie, you aren't going to ask a dumb question, and you have experience of other fixed gear forums. Well, why didn't you say? If all of this is true, then you can contact me (the administrator) using the Contact Us form at the bottom of the page and outline why you need to be out of the nursery. If you can persuade me with a paragraph that you need to start a new thread, or send a PM, or something... then I will get you out of the nursery as soon as I can (i.e. when I've checked my email and seen your message). I do this a lot, it's cool. So do just ask, I'm not that scary really.

I think that covers all of the basics about the nursery... key thing, just say hi, chat to us... the nursery period will fly by before you know it. It's the best way, and it's the one that works best for everyone.