Role changes: Member or New Member

Thanks for the information, I did try clicking on the Simpsons badges link but it didn’t work, I got the permission problem screen.

@Muhsterino , sorry about that I'll check it out

@Muhsterino , turns out I can't grant access to that page for now. If that changes I'll be sure to let you know, in the meantime I've edited the post to include examples. If you have any specific questions about your own badges you can DM me.

Thanks for the info, and for the attempts to deal with this new issue. This has the potential to help, as the trolls now can not just jump to a new user to continue.

Thanks @Willy9292 , hopefully this doesn't affect any new members that are genuine and want to be part of the community. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM605pKX4hQ

Brilliant! Thanks so much for making this change!!!

https://media2.giphy.com/media/oNlovU1bJOcYE/giphy.gif

No problem, we should have implemented this a long time ago to be honest.

This is fantastic news thank you. :)

I have had nasty messages from trolls in the past and this should put an end to that. B)

Although I understand why this change has been implemented, as no-one likes to see trolling on a family friendly site, I feel it will have a negative impact on the forum as a whole. There are assumptions made in the initial post that I would like to address and put across my views. I am not trying to be disrespectful in any way, merely outlining my concerns.
Some players visit this site to get help in the 'bugs and issues' section and it can be very useful to have screenshot(s) to explain the problem. Some have never posted before and would not be able to post a screenshot. Tagging @EllieGuseman and @daved7637397 who frequently help in this section of the forum - we could ask people to post a screenie on EA HQ?
Tapped Out at its very heart is a town building game and players like to post their designs, even more so with the new town screen capture feature. @Castiel19x does a great job in promoting and encouraging players to post in the Showcase section. There are a few that like to exclusively post in this section, new members would not be able to under these rules.
Some long-time members like new players to PM them before adding them to their friends list, again not available until they gain member status. On occasions, I receive PM's from new players asking for help and advice, and they do not want to post openly on the forum for whatever reason.
Some threads are greatly enhanced by posting screenshots and one of the best ever 'first posts' was with multiple screenshots in the 'animating buildings' thread.
The number of players posting on the site has reduced dramatically in my time as a member and I feel this will discourage some people from joining, as it can be seen as requiring a certain amount of popularity before you can be a member. The phrase 'by earning badges with your day to day activity' makes the assumption that all new members feel comfortable posting on here and would want to be involved on a regular basis. I doubt if I would join the site if I had to start off as a new member today.

First off, you aren't being one bit disrespectful. Given how many players you've helped within the community & how amazing your guides are, I think that your opinion has a lot of value to be honest. The same can be said of @EllieGuseman & @daved7637397 .

I understand your concerns, if I'm being honest I had the same concerns at first which is why I was reluctant to set this up. We are well aware that posting images is an important aspect of the forum experience, especially in The Simpsons Tapped out and we were sure to take into consideration when setting up the role. We believe that anyone can easily reach 10 points within their first 3 days on the forums. Saying hello on the forums and/or posting in the Finding Friends section is a great way to kick things off. You can also help them by reacting to these posts. As for the DM option, we've disabled as some of the trolls were harassing others with their messages. I will say that if a forum member sends a message to a new member, they do have the ability to reply. While it may mean that a fragment of players are discouraged you have to remember why we are doing this in the first place. Letting these people roam free on the forum is even more discouraging to new members.

We will monitor this closely, we can easily adjust these settings in the future to adapt to what benefits the community the best.