Originally Posted by
dukerau
I think there can be a balance instead of an all-or-nothing approach. Perhaps have a section of the MS forum that is open to all and has a lot of the big, more stable deals (AP, Serve, etc). Then have a restricted section that requires a certain post count.
But I don't think post count nor date first joined are good indicators to use. Anyone can post dozens of posts in a day on random topics without any meaningful content. Actually that will encourage people to post on random things just to "up their post count".
Restricting things to the date first joined also doesn't make sense because you could have someone who joined 5 years ago who visits the boards once a year and doesn't really provide any input, while you could have someone who joined last month actually contributing on a day to day basis.
I don't agree that all people who joined recently are newbies. I've lurked this forum for years and just never registered because I had nothing to say. It's posts like this that encouraged me to make an account to "establish" myself. But that in itself is silly in my opinion.