Forum maintenance completed

[ahasoft]

Some configuration problems have emerged on the forum over the past few days — among them incorrectly set permissions for some users, probably leading to the mysterious appearance or disappearance of particular discussion groups. Things should now be stable. Here is a brief review of user permissions in The Salon:

• Guests are allowed to read certain discussion groups, but are not allowed to reply to messages or leave messages of their own. (Guests are defined as forum visitors who either have not registered — ‘created an account’ — or have simply not yet logged in.)
• Registered Users are those who have created an account on the forum. Registered users have access to most discussion groups, and can leave messages; however, their messages are not posted immediately but must first be cleared by a forum moderator or administrator. This measure is designed to minimize the incidence of spam on the forum. Note that the moderator’s task is not to censor discussion, but simply to verify that it falls within forum rules, and to filter out the hit-and-run automated spammery and trollery that invariably arises to devil online communities.
• Forum Regulars are those registered users who have posted to the forum under moderator approval and are now therefore recognized as full members, entrusted to post without screening. The transformation from Registered User to Forum Regular can be wrought only by the manual intervention of an administrator; usually it will happen within the user’s first few posts.

In addition to the above, we also have certain groups such as those for Administrators, Moderators and Beta Testers, which serve special functions or provide access to closed-door discussions. Please contact the administrators if you believe that you have not been assigned to the proper group.