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Tell DN: We're opening registration

9 years ago from , Intent Renderer

Hey DN,

We feel that DN has reached a new level of maturity where it is more self-policing than not. With that in mind, we’re opening up registration to everyone who would like to join.

We will still keep a watchful eye on new accounts to ensure the quality of the community. Existing members should see no difference except a sweet new color for their profile. Consider it a small thank you for being a part of DN.

To streamline the process, the participation of new users will be tiered over the course of a week. When you first join you will only be able to comment and participate in discussions. After 1 day, you will gain the ability to vote. After a week, you will be considered a full time member and will be able to submit stories.

We’re aiming to roll out these changes by Monday (September 15, 2014) morning.

Thank you for continuing to make DN a great community!

54 comments

  • Jonathan ShariatJonathan Shariat, 9 years ago

    I'm really exited for this, but I feel like we are missing 1 really important tool:

    The downvote.

    For posts and for comments. Otherwise, Its much harder to self police.

    28 points
    • Manik RatheeManik Rathee, 9 years ago

      Maybe I'm missing something, but:

      downvote

      3 points
      • Chris SlowikChris Slowik, 9 years ago

        Must be based on Karma.

        0 points
      • Sam MularczykSam Mularczyk, 9 years ago

        You must be cool or something:

        no downvote...

        6 points
      • Jonathan ShariatJonathan Shariat, 9 years ago

        Interesting, I have 640 karma so far and I don't have that. Maybe we need to lower the threshold then?

        0 points
        • Emily Campbell, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

          He's a moderator

          Edit: missed the post after. Sorry to be duplicative :)

          2 points
      • Matt AchariamMatt Achariam, 9 years ago

        It's a mod only feature for now.

        4 points
        • Jonathan ShariatJonathan Shariat, 9 years ago

          Any reasoning behind it you could share?

          I think it is part of a health community.

          0 points
          • Tierney CyrenTierney Cyren, 9 years ago

            But DN is a design community. For the most part, we sit on our arses all day moving our wrists and index fingers. That doesn't scream "health" to me.

            0 points
            • Kelly SuttonKelly Sutton, 9 years ago

              So here's the reasoning: there are light and heavy ways of punishing stories. Downvoting is a lightweight way, but it also affects a story more. If you think of the three states:

              • Upvote (+1)
              • Ambivalence (+0)
              • Downvote (-1)

              it's clear that most of the community already has a downvote feature, and that's through ambivalence. Actual downvoting is actively punishing a story, which we believe should be the sole discretion of mods and admins. Thus downvoting is not available to everyone.

              7 points
              • Tierney CyrenTierney Cyren, 9 years ago

                Sorry, that wasn't meant as an attack on you--I was being sarcastic because of a small typo in the post I responded to that could lead someone to think something entirely different than what the poster meant. Thank you for explaining, though! It's nice to know the actual thought process behind the decision. I can't say I disagree, though there are times when I see something that's just begging for a million downvotes. I suppose my previous post might be one of those.

                0 points
              • Kristy TillmanKristy Tillman, 9 years ago

                down votes this reply

                1 point
        • Manik RatheeManik Rathee, 9 years ago

          wooooops. I completely forgot to consider that.

          Apologies.

          2 points
      • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, 9 years ago

        Only mods and admins see the Downvote thingie.... But it ain't working for me so I just gave up on being negative and upvote the s%$t out of everything.

        5 points
  • Arun KP, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    Needs a fix in the profile section: Bug

    Great news! Also, we need a preview before we post. Don't you think so?

    5 points
  • Cosmin NegoitaCosmin Negoita, 9 years ago

    Wondering if this is going to make DN even worse.

    5 points
  • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, 9 years ago

    I was afraid this would happen. DN was so much better three years ago, before all the new people joined… :(

    (Kidding. I'm excited to see how this turns out, and the tiered participation is a great idea!)

    4 points
  • Matt SistoMatt Sisto, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    I'm glad it's opening up and I pray that DN doesn't take a nose dive, but as someone who ran a pretty popular board for 9 years (Lemmingtrail; I think around ~5-6 million posts or so from a few thousand users), I fear the trolls.

    There's really no way to police them, unless you add a hellbanning feature. And hellbanning is kinda lame.

    4 points
  • Jamie Dickinson, 9 years ago

    Been watching this community for a while and have gotten some fantastic advice and tips. Looking forward to contributing where I can. Thanks.

    4 points
  • Christian Krammer, 9 years ago

    Any chances to get an edit feature for posts? Because sometimes you forget something, just misspell something or simply don't want to share it anymore (ask for advice on a design for example).

    2 points
  • Daniel CondraDaniel Condra, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    Being rather new to Designer News, it appears that there's quite a few little secret features that are somewhat unexplained unless you do quite a bit of digging. Is this intentional? Or did I miss the help page? Or is there a chance that a page could be added that lays out what those secrets without necessarily telling the new user what those fun, hidden features are?

    2 points
  • Autumn WellesAutumn Welles, 9 years ago

    Forgive my ignorance on the subject, but what restrictions are currently in place? I signed up a while ago, but I don't remember needing to do anything special to register (aside from doing it at a certain time of day).

    2 points
  • Will Hitchcock, 9 years ago

    Sounds good to me. It's been awesome to watch the community grow over time. I think we're all looking forward to seeing where this thing goes in the future.

    Keep up the good work LV team!

    2 points
  • Braden HammBraden Hamm, 9 years ago

    We should get ALL the colors.

    1 point
  • Robert CuzicRobert Cuzic, 9 years ago

    Youohoo! I'm in!

    1 point
  • Rizwan MRizwan M, 9 years ago

    New Colour Super cool :) My friends are waiting for this opportunity

    1 point
  • David BarkerDavid Barker, 9 years ago

    I'm excited to "meet" the new members!

    1 point
  • Patrick LoonstraPatrick Loonstra, 9 years ago

    Sounds like a great step, but hope you can remain the community the way it is right now. Good luck with that and please provide good tools for us, the users, to help with that.

    0 points