What does "Unapproved" mean for a topic?

[Barbara Morris]

I wanted to reply to this topic https://code400.com/forum/forum/iser...-apis-from-rpg, but there isn't any "Reply" button. I notice that it says "Unapproved".

Can someone approve it so we can reply?

Or maybe it's the OP themself who is unapproved. They joined in November. If so, could somebody approve Luca Altmann?

I recommended this forum to Luca's colleague who sent me private email about the topic. I said that this forum is very friendly, but ... it doesn't seem very friendly if we can't respond to a newbie's post.

[Viking]

In order to avoid spam posts, I think new users aren't immediately trusted, so their posts are "unapproved" and require a moderator to approve them before we can respond. Yes, I agree it would be good if this happened quickly so as not to lose new users.

[Barbara Morris]

Thanks Viking.

(But if the purpose is to prevent spam, it seems like it would be better to delay even showing the post until it's approved. Or if it's going to be shown immediately, but with "unapproved" status, to allow people with some level of forum experience to respond to it, or even to approve it even if they aren't moderators.)

[JonBoy]

Not only is it posted but you can't reply - but it has been out there for a few days now.

[Scott Klement]

I agree... the way "Unapproved" works on this site doesn't seem right. Unapproved posts should only be visible to moderators, and there should be a sufficient number of moderators that can approve them that the posts don't have to wait too long.

[Vectorspace]

I added a lengthly reply to this post a week ago: https://code400.com/forum/forum/iser...-needed-urgent
And it's marked as Unapproved for some reason. In the end I PM-ed it to the user

[JonBoy]

How strange because that post of yours is visible.

[Barbara Morris]

Finally, Luca Altmann's post has been approved. Thanks to whoever did that.

[Viking]

Regarding "Unapproved"... I wrote a post in the SQL forum about 20 minutes ago and posted it, and everything was fine. Then I noticed a formatting issue, so I edited the post to make it more clear and easier to read and re-saved it. This somehow flagged it as potential spam and it is now "Unapproved" and needs someone to approve it.

So I guess besides being a new "untrusted" member, this is another way posts can be "Unapproved".

Hoping someone approves it before too long so that people can respond to me...

I wonder who these all-powerful approvers are...? I would like to put in my application to be an approver, and I promise to only approve real posts and no spam!

[JonBoy]

I had the same problem last week Viking. Post had nothing in it that I could see that would cause it to be flagged - just a URL for an article. It was visible but could not be responded to. Don't know if Jamie is just incredibly busy at the moment or what has gone wrong with the site but it is taking forever for posts to be approved. Site is also horribly slow too and the amount of time it keeps you signed in fluctuates wildly. Last few days I have had to sign in for each and ever comment. last week it kept me signed in for the whole day.

[Viking]

Strange... I almost never have to sign in. It seems to remember me for weeks.

[Scott Klement]

Yeah, I'd like the ability to approve stuff, as well. (and also the ablity to edit my own posts to fix mistakes)

[Viking]

Interesting that you can't edit your own posts... it lets me edit my posts, although this time that seems to be how my post that was initially ok became flagged as needing approval. But it doesn't happen every time I edit my posts.

[Vectorspace]

I did suggest to JamieF via a PM quite a while ago (maybe last year), that he could promote some of the trustworthy regulars to be moderators for these reasons. He seemed to like the idea, but he never got back to me about it.