more clarity for new members

hi guys

i know i am new and i know a lot of people don't like it when new people come in and come across as ''know it all''
but i just want to help you guys to grow and improve  so i hope it is ok that i'm posting this

there are two things on my mind that i think could ''improve''

first is the welcome pm.... 
This is what the welcome pm looks like (not sure if you guys are aware of this) 

and  to be honest, it is not very clear and for someone who does not even know what these things mean like ''div'' etc (i do but a lot of people don't lol) would find it weird and confusing and thus would not even bother read the actual content that is all between these coding tags
and so the whole welcome pm is basically there for nothing.

welcome pms are the best and most useful when they are straightforward and clear , also not too much text. (too much text most of the time does not get read at all)
so i strongly recommend you guys do something about how the pm format shows up for members because like this with all the coding tags and everything, i bet most new members did not bother with it, which is ashame of course

secondly, the whole ''agreeing to rules'' thing
i have never seen this on any other forum and thought it was a bit strange but at same time i think it is kinda nice and different, so that's cool.... however, it is not very clear at all that you have to do that or else you will never be able to post on this forum.  i had struggles to figure out why i was not able to post when i registered (an intro thread)  and let's be honest, it is not a common thing that when you register on a forum , not being able to post.... so if you guys want to run things like this, which is fine of course, i think you should at least make it more clear that people have to do that before they can post...because if you don't make it more clear, it can easily drive people away after they register... if people think they cannot post then ''what's the use in staying'', most would think anyways  (i asked one of the admins in pm but more than enough would not even bother doing that and never return again) and i am sure you don't want that

right now, i know you guys the thing on the left saying ''read our rules'' and i know it is animated and all that, to catch people their attention but it is not like that says ''agree to be able to post on the forum'' or something
there is no clear message that they have to read it and say agree or else they cannot become a full member and post around ....

you have to realise a lot of people that are used to being on forums, such as myself, don't bother to read rules often enough because we know what most forum rules state anyway and since i am the type of person to behave anyways and not do anything absurd and disturbing.... i don't bother reading rules often enough
and if that's the case with other people too, and it will be trust me, then how are they suppose to find out that they have to post in the rules topic in order to get post access? if they never click on the rules thing....


also  as far as i can tell, the actual rules topic only ''kindly asks for people to do so'' but it does not state they HAVE to do it or else they cannot post at all....

you guys see where i am going with this?
if i am missing stuff here, if there is actually a way that you guys made it super clear and i am just missing it because i am silly like that, then ignore me

I get where you're coming from completely. I actually thought of updating the welcome pm, but never got around to it although this gives me a reminder to do so. This forum was changed from a Build-A-Bear site where we asked people to sign rules. Sometimes in the past people that did not read the rules broke rules such as spamming the forum or even the chatbox. It was meant so that people would be aware of the rules and not break them. I understand that not everyone reads the rules or cares, but even just reading them once or every couple of months is a good refresher. When I update the pm I will make it more clear that you have to sign the rules so you can post. Thank you so much for your feedback as it helps us a lot! I hope this clears some things up as why we do the stuff we do here.

The welcome message was fixed so there will be no coding. I had an admin check themselves so it's all good. Now if anyone new joins soon they should see the new message.