Test posting in order to get past "probationary member" status

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As of August 29, 2012, the "Probationary Member" status has changed.

As can be seen below, the "Probationary" step was mainly intended to prevent spammers from posting threads. What we found was that they'd make posts in existing threads anyway, so it wasn't really achieving its intended purpose, but it was making a lot of legitimate new members jump through unnecessary hoops to get to the required three posts.

That three post limit is no longer in effect. A new member should be able to start a thread with their first post.

The Probationary Member restrictions remain on Private Messages, Emails, posting of signatures and signature pictures, but those have never been the subject of any confusion or complaint that we're aware of.

We recognize that a lot of new members will post here in the Test Forum, in order to get the three posts required to be able to start new threads of their own. Actually, it's preferable to post here, rather than to post irrelevant things in other, more serious threads. It seems though, that many experience some frustration when they've posted three times here, and find they still are unable to start their own thread.

The forum software updates member status once per hour. If you've already made three posts, once that cycle is completed, you'll be able to start threads.

And since many new members will find themselves reading this post, welcome to Heavy Equipment Forums!