Allowing visitors to see your forums

Elbethil · Last edited by Elbethil on 11/24/2005, 9:20 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've noticed this mostly with IPBs, where one cannot view the forum index if they are not logged in/registered. Do any of you folks do this with your forums? Why or why not?

I do not and personally I find it irksome when I come across such websites; I like to have a good look around forums as a guest before registering. Without that opportunity, I find myself disinterested in registering.
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Patrick · Administrator

No. A few individual forums, perhaps, but not all forums. That sort of thing generally discourages registration I find as I generally won't register for a community if I don't know what I'm registering for.
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~HG~ · Posted: 11/25/2005, 4:36 pm Post subject:

I find that if a forum is hidden from public view then I wont go back to it.

If I come across one that interests me, I will save it in my favourites and go back and have a look at what is happening from time to time and if I feel I can contribute to it I will join it.

There are of course some private forums around that you can register by invitation only and in those cases hiding them from the public is fine but for a general community, I find it offensive to have an administrator hide it from you unless you register. To me that shows a lack of respect towards prospective new members.
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Lady Syren · Posted: 11/25/2005, 5:07 pm Post subject:

I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I do have two communities where the forums and certain features are not accessible by guests. These two communities are also invite-only; so if someone isn't invited, they're account isn't approved/activated by an admin.

These two communities have copyrighted/trademarked material and images on them. My fiancee and I have already had to have our lawyer go after a few people who stole our materials and images. Since locking down our communities and making them invite only, we haven't had any trouble at all with theft.

Plus, we invite the people we like and can trust. These are the people we have known for a long time. The members have all said that they really like how these two communities are set up and they like that guests just can't see everything or access everything.
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Teknomancer · Posted: 11/26/2005, 5:33 am Post subject:

No I don't disable viewing of forums by guests. I feel when a forum is new and growing users often register when wanting to give their opinion on topics and stuff and obviously blocking that may not get you new users.... More well established forums can probably disable such viewing... not so sure I agree though.
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JohnW · Posted: 12/8/2005, 12:02 pm Post subject:

The forum I administer is for a climbing club (of which I'm a member).
The object of the forum is for members to discuss official club meets, member organised meets, club issues, weekend partners and general club chat. The forum is members only and I only add new people as and when they join the club. No unregistered person can view the forum or member list. This allows our registered users to disclose their full contact details knowing that only other members will see them.
We have a web site that guests can view if they want to know more about the club.

Truestar · Moderator

I love members, thus I'm in between on this topic. There is only one forum that guests can post in, and that's the problems/help forum.

I feel tha membership should be required to post and discuss. But as for viewing forums, my views are different.

I let guests view all my forums with the exception of those special ones. Maybe a forum offers great discussion or has some pretty cool stuff in it. I tease the guests and make them register to view.

Such as my Star Trek forum. I created the "Star Trek Archives". This was a compiliation of information, TV guides, movie guides, and video game guides created by a hardcore trekkie. To view those you have to be a guest. Wink

However regular discussion forums can be viewed. Smile

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dojo · Posted: 12/19/2005, 6:58 am Post subject:

I have my forums visible, with some exceptions. I do allow guest to view something, most of the forums, but I have some hidden ones just for the members.
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Ex0dus · Posted: 12/19/2005, 10:15 am Post subject:

I used to have one forum for members to view only, but have since taken off that restriction, since that forum didnt get much attention without guests.

I even allow guests to post in two of my forums (general chat and test/spam).

My feeling is that users need a chance to warm up to a community before they really become active in it, so i like to let them see (and experience a bit) of what we have to offer before they register.

-Ex0dus

TroubleMan · Posted: 1/5/2006, 6:23 pm Post subject: Re: Allowing visitors to see your forums