tonyv

I use a similar approach. My community is exclusive, and my policy for years has been that you have to ask to join. I kept registration deactivated and had an announcement visible to guests telling hopefuls to use the Contact Us link to write to me. I would then temporarily re-activate registration so the prospective member could register. Lots of users joined that way, and I knew that spammers weren't going to write to me. Since activating PBR, I've been able to re-activate registration, and almost no spammers even try to register, because they're too busy "posting" ... or at least they think they are! 😉 With this feature and the spam control rating option, it leaves very few IP addresses, user names, and email addresses for me to Google and run through WhoIs, Project Honeypot, etc. It's working out great for me.

Isn't that an individual user's browser setting?

I have it activated. Haven't had a single incident of spam, but that's because I have to manually approve each registrant. I do look at my online users list and find it amusing to see some user busy posting a topic in a forum where I know we will never see his post. Why? Because he won't be approved, or he won't even bother registering after trying to post, because he's a spammer lol.

I get an email notification for every new topic, but I'm not sure if that's just an option for admins. The one thing it doesn't do is let me know of any replies in those new topics unless I go to those topics and participate/follow.

Dark mode is neither necessary nor desirable.

Not mine. Facebook is not allowed on my community.

Engagement without substance is at best overrated, more accurately useless. I want substance, not clicks. I don't need their noses in an app if they're only gonna click LIKE and not write anything.

The broader market and that kind of engagement is ass. I avoid it to the max. I won't activate any feature(s) like that on my forum.

How I hate sms. It's ancient technology. My messaging is all over data, where "Läheme käime sõõmas" doesn't look stupid like "Laheme kaime soomas." Furthermore, I don't see why there is all this crying for push notifications. Maybe it's because I've always had all seven of my email accounts pushed instantly to my smartphone's unified inbox over Exchange ActiveSync / IMAP technology. I know everything that happens on my forum (and this one & others, too) instantly. So easy to see what's going on when I have...push email! I would hate being forced to live in separate individual apps when I can see it all (and go instantly to a topic to reply if I choose) from my unified inbox thanks to push email.

I believe you're being sincere, but I just don't agree. And that's okay. Forums are primarily for certain types of discussion (e.g.paragraph style posts) just like social media is primarily for certain types of discussion (e.g. broadcast messaging). From what I've read those groups are a timeline-driven mess. I wouldn't waste my time posting on them.

Another sound-byte cliche like "change is good." Only for people who want social media to begin with. There's nothing wrong with logging in tomorrow to read a post if that's when you have the time to do it. It's better than showing up now when you're out of time (like I am now) and half-assing it.

Exactly. If you need social media you go to social media. If you need forums, well...that's why I'm here. It's like saying you think diesel is great. Well, it is, and it has its uses/fans. But you don't buy a gasser and say, let me turn this into a diesel, change the engine, rip out and replace the fuel system, etc. You just get a diesel if that's what you want/need. This kind of "change" is bad, impractical, at best.

Going all out and posting a story. Now, only if I could get it to show only once for each user and self-destruct so I don't have to worry about it for more than one day. VID_20190630_215433.mp4

Why??? What is the big deal with these dumbass stories disappearing?!? It's nonsensical. These so-called standards to which you allude are crap. If I wanted to "blog about my daily life" I would do it right on my forum. If I wanted to make disappearing blog posts, I would go to one of those idiotic social media platforms and do that. I disagree. No, we don't. Thankfully, forums are not childish chatsnap, nor should they be.

I'm in this for the long haul. I came to Invision when I realized, pretty quickly, that free options are wholly unsuitable for the longevity I need. When your "free" forum disappears after all you've put into it, you'll have absolutely no recourse. With a paid option there is accountability. Invision has stability and a track record you can count on. @Matt,Hopefully that's one more you can use. I'd really like to see that promised pic!