Spam has been a behind-the-scenes challenge at YLF for years. To deal with it we’ve built automated systems of our own, we use third party anti-spam systems, and we do a fair amount of manual moderation with the help of many forum members. But recently the volume of incoming spam reached epic proportions and started to overwhelm all of these measures. We need to take some additional steps to reign it in. You may have noticed the first of these, which was to restrict the ability to comment on blog posts to logged in members. 

The second step concerns the forum. We will move to a model where only YLF patrons (paying members) can post in the forum. Don’t fret if you are a current YLF member because your ability to post in the forum for free won’t go away. The requirement to be a paying member will only apply to NEW members who join after July 15, 2024.

There are two ways to become a YLF patron: a recurring monthly subscription and a non-recurring annual payment.

We are announcing this a few weeks in advance of the change so that people who have been thinking about participating in the forum, but haven’t yet taken the leap, have some time to get in for free before July 15.

Just to make things completely clear, here are the people who will be able to post and reply in the forum from July 15 onwards:

  • Any paying member
  • Any member who signed up before July 15, 2024

Here is a summary to clarify the features available to different visitors.

Feature Table

You can see that anonymous visitors can still read all of the content, and all logged in members can still collect items, create collections using the Finds feature, and post comments in the forum.

For members who are posting in the forum, the member levels will continue to apply as before.

Thank you in advance for your understanding. If you have any questions, please log in and post them in the comments below.