Hey folks, I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of an important change we've made to the train hopping section of StP.
On top of our previous requirement that you must be logged into your StP account to view the train hopping forum, all users must now have at least 10 posts on their account and an avatar/photo added to their profile (can be anything, doesn't have to be your face). You should have your profile filled out as well,but this is not currently required specifically, the 'about me' section.
We've implemented this restriction to reduce what I'm calling 'drive-by posting' where (usually newbies) come in asking to be spoon-fed some kind of train hopping information (i.e. without using the search box or doing their own research) and then disappear, never to be heard from again (or participating in the community). So, in order to spur more serious and helpful discussion of train hopping related information, we've decided this is the best way to tighten security while not closing off access entirely (say behind some kind of vetting system).
Obviously abuse of the forums (say, someone spamming 10 posts real quick) just to get access will be met with a fairly quick account ban. The StP community is centered around helping other travelers no matter what their chosen form of travel may be, but that help does require a small amount of participation, both for our benefit and yours.
We may adjust these new requirements for the train hopping section based on community input, just look for an announcement thread in the forums or a reply to this thread if things seem to have changed or aren't working as expected (or contact our staff).
Hopefully, this will help improve the quality of content being posted in the train hopping section of the forums and overall make that area more useful for those willing to participate in the community.
On top of our previous requirement that you must be logged into your StP account to view the train hopping forum, all users must now have at least 10 posts on their account and an avatar/photo added to their profile (can be anything, doesn't have to be your face). You should have your profile filled out as well,
We've implemented this restriction to reduce what I'm calling 'drive-by posting' where (usually newbies) come in asking to be spoon-fed some kind of train hopping information (i.e. without using the search box or doing their own research) and then disappear, never to be heard from again (or participating in the community). So, in order to spur more serious and helpful discussion of train hopping related information, we've decided this is the best way to tighten security while not closing off access entirely (say behind some kind of vetting system).
Obviously abuse of the forums (say, someone spamming 10 posts real quick) just to get access will be met with a fairly quick account ban. The StP community is centered around helping other travelers no matter what their chosen form of travel may be, but that help does require a small amount of participation, both for our benefit and yours.
We may adjust these new requirements for the train hopping section based on community input, just look for an announcement thread in the forums or a reply to this thread if things seem to have changed or aren't working as expected (or contact our staff).
Hopefully, this will help improve the quality of content being posted in the train hopping section of the forums and overall make that area more useful for those willing to participate in the community.
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