Your Assistance Needed :)

Been looking at the server stats for the past few minutes and have noticed a lot of ip addresses that appear on a regular basis on the message forums however, they dont tally up to any of the regstered community members.

My question to you is this..

Should we make the forums on GWW viewable only by individuals who have registered for the community or leave it as it is right now and let everyone see the information we have on the community?

Right now im in two minds about what to do, on the one hand, having the information freely available for anyone to see is probably going to be the most helpful for more individuals whilst, on the other hand, only allowing registered users to view the forums may stop others from joining the community overall.

What do you guys think of this?

Would you be okay to run a test for a week whereby only people logged in could view the community forums?

Regards,

Lee

People won't register for a board they can't see is good or not.

Just an idea, maybe give unregistered viewers a preview version....

They can only see the first post but no replies until they register/log in.

Lee,

I agree with Matt, I don't think people will register for a forum they can't see. I think if you made the change today, several people who currently access the forums with being registered are likely to join, but I think you will lose most new surfers.

But, what is the objective? If it's to create a community, then maybe that's not a bad way to go. If it's to get information to people, then why make them register?

I know for myself, I probably read the posts on the forum for a couple of months before registering. I felt registering was the right thing to do, so that I could hopefully make at least some contribution.

And, this forum has probably been the single most valuable resource I've had while trying to launch our site.

Tony

Hey Lee Just my 2 cents, I know when looking for info say for a type of pill I found when I go to ole google find it and then goto the sites form and it ask me to register it kind of pissess me off but I want to find out real bad what it is so I register.. I think it can be good for the most part. What I would do is have it so they will see say a pinned post saying welcome have the members here post in that post saying what is inside the protected area and KEEP TELLING THEM it is free to reg and never a fee etc...

The only bad thing I can see and shit its still early so There maybe more bad things but is if you depend on the money you make from selling ad space on here.. Your click throughs and things like that will prolly go way down.. *shrugs* Good luck budddddy

Tom:kitten:

I agree... let them see only part of what what's here and make them register to be a member and see everything.

Also make registering verified by email so no fake emails for those who aren't serious and just want to spam. Nothing is full proof , but just one more step for them to overcome.

When it comes down to it.. this place exists because of people who contribute to the community, not those who lurk. :-D

Quote:

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Originally posted by Squirt
When it comes down to it.. this place exists because of people who contribute to the community, not those who lurk. :-D

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:fire:

Do what I do on a few of my boards, have 'hidden' forums with the meat and potatoes of the site.

Give them a few pithy forums with a big note that ONLY registered users can access the most important part of the forums.

Once a month clear out all those who have registered but haven't logged in within 30 days.

Lee,

Here's an angle you may not have thought of.

In the past week with all of the iBill stuff, I've referred three different MANcheck employees to the board. And I send two of my co-workers links on a regular basis. Neither of them are interested in posting here because they're busy and they know I'm taking care of things for MANcheck. But allowing them to check in now and again is helpful, it allows them to do their jobs better, and it continues to show them that GWW is "the" place to be if you're in the gay adult business. This is going to translate into advertising dollars for you.

I'm sure there are a lot of other programs out there where one or two people are the main board reps, but others like to check in from time to time or on specific issues. It would be a shame to cut them off.

I'd be more interested in looking at people who are registered, check in regularly, and never post.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

I vote for leaving it as is -- a lot of folk lurk, send others, etc. I agree that most will NOT sign up for a board that they can't read for awhile first.

What if to the public you have the title of the post, number of views and responses.. when they click it asks them to become a member.. and like.. every other post on the post list page is viewable? That way they get some, but not all? Like oh my God I just used like in a sentence like when I lived in California :-D

I think leaving it open is the best bet too...is it really killing your bandwidth bills to leave it open? prolly not, plus ya gotta remember that it takes some lurkers a while before they come out of the virtual closet and start posting :D

And we do want to remain a welcoming board to all, right?

cheers,
Luke

my feeling is leave it as it is. after all, some of your lurkers may be clicking banners for your board sponsors. and i know lurkers who lurked at awi for over a year before their first post!

i don't think anyone will join a forum they can't read, either.

I definately think going registered only is an excellent idea. Serious webmasters will take the time to signup. Those looking to get rich quick with crap sites will only skim over everything and probably never register anyway. Do we really need to put more information in the hands of crappy webmasters looking to make a quick buck off the "gay niche" as they call it? I think not...and with services like allofem putting this info in the hands of ignorant lazy webmasters every day, it's already happening in mass.

It would be cool if people who take the time to register and post helpful information could expect it to only be shared with people who might someday be able to help them out too, not take the info and run. This type of community is based on giving back not just getting.

On the other hand, would you lose a ton of traffic from places like allofem? Probably wouldn't be a great loss...

Just read everyone elses replies, and some make it sound like signing up for a forum is this long drawn out tedious process. Are webmasters really that lazy? You can still be a lurker and a member, membership dosn't require posting.

Considering that this IS such an excellent resource for SERIOUS webmasters, I think anyone who takes the industry seriously can spare a few seconds to click on a join button and type a few things in. The idea about being able to see topics but not threads is excellent, if you could set that up. Then they can see what is being discussed here before deciding if they want to take that hard, tedious extra step of signing up for the boards.

This site has obviously always been about quality not just quantity, decisions like this have to be based on mantaining and/or improving the quality of the resource, not just ad revenue and numbers, thats how its always has been and should stay; MY 2 cents

DigitalJay - i've been a fulltime webmaster since 1996, but i can tell you this: i'd never sign up for a board i could not see.

that's only me, but i'm sure there are others who feel as i do.

Thanks everyone for your feedback some excellent points both for and against making changes.

I think for the time being though, we shall leave things as they are as that seems to be the communities choice.

Again thanks for the feedback :)

Regards,

Lee

Someone had mentioned that making the board available to registered members only would decrease the number of clicks to board advertisers. But, there is a good possibility that those fewer clicks could send more conversions from serious webmasters. Ya never know. :)