Having been let loose on the site, so to speak, I have taken it upon my self to make a few changes.

The first change is to ease the restrictions in place for creating accounts.

By the end of the day you will be able to make a new account here but you will not be able to use HTML or make links.

This however can be changed once logged on.

We have defined a number of "groups" that up until now have not been used. One of these groups is "Helpfull Users" which is the group to which all members will be added once they have been here a little while.

It will not be automatic but will require an admin or assistent admin to make the change.

The "Helpfull Users" group will not only have access to adding images, links and HTML but will be able to post all sorts of content.

We feel that this is the best way to go as it allows us to stop the effectivness of spam without stopping users from joining in.

We will also be making use of a moderation queue system soon that will allow more access to some more sensative content types but still allow users to vet them before publication so that we do not end up with lots of porn, hate and other bad stuff.

Hopefully in this way we can find a good middle ground between protection from the evil doer and freedom and access for all.

As it is we have a moderation system that all users should be able to use whereby bad comments get voted down and good one up. Comments with too low a score are then hidden. As more poeple start to use the site then this will start to be more effective and with luck we can relax the restrictions further giving power to the average user rather than holding on to it.