I am Newbie

[joseprincely]

Hi! I am Newbie here.. No Profile customization opened. No signature, No avatar settings and cannot find the answers in FAQ also... Need Help...

[wajid tareen]

Greetings..
Whats the Question??????

[joseprincely]

I want to know why Profile customization such as setting avatar, signature are not opened to me!

[wajid tareen]

because your number of posts is less than 10.

[rpj]

Can you explain why the forum management has decided to close signatures and avatars to new users until they reach ten posts?

Signatures are a good place to put repeating information like system, software versions and links to sites. At the moment I have to write them into each email - and sometimes forget. Would it not make everyones lives easier if new members were encouraged to use the signature panel for this pupose and get them (us) into good habits early?

As for avatars, most of the time they are a bit of fluff, but for some people they help identify their posts in a stream of text. This may not seem important to people who are familiar with the forum layout and used to combing screens full of code. But people with visual impairment, English as a second language who have to use the mainly English forums, and those with 'charatcter rceognition issues (dyslexia et al) a picture is a lot easier than a small text string.

Also, by setting the bar at ten posts, are you not encouraging new members to artificially build up their postings?

I understand that signatures and avatars use system resources, but surely this cannot be a serious problem these days.

Interested to hear your views.

Thanks - RPJ

[brad]

Can you explain why the forum management has decided to close signatures and avatars to new users until they reach ten posts?

Signatures are a good place to put repeating information like system, software versions and links to sites. At the moment I have to write them into each email - and sometimes forget. Would it not make everyones lives easier if new members were encouraged to use the signature panel for this pupose and get them (us) into good habits early?

As for avatars, most of the time they are a bit of fluff, but for some people they help identify their posts in a stream of text. This may not seem important to people who are familiar with the forum layout and used to combing screens full of code. But people with visual impairment, English as a second language who have to use the mainly English forums, and those with 'charatcter rceognition issues (dyslexia et al) a picture is a lot easier than a small text string.

Also, by setting the bar at ten posts, are you not encouraging new members to artificially build up their postings?

I understand that signatures and avatars use system resources, but surely this cannot be a serious problem these days.

Interested to hear your views.

Thanks - RPJ

Unfortunately, this is a necessary side affect of the level of abuse we (and many other large online forums) experience. Don't worry too much, if you are here to stay, you'll reach 10 posts soon enough and be able to use these features.

Thanks for understanding.

[rpj]

Lesser of two evils I suppose. Thanks for taking the time to get back to me anyway.

Cheers - RPJ (5 down 5 to go)