One thing that I have noticed on a lot of forums that I have checked out is that they require guests to register before they can view the forums or view any of the threads. Myself, I have never been a fan of doing something like this. It discourages the guests from registering a lot of the time because they're curious as to what you're trying to hide. Generally when I am checking out a forum for the first time, I want to browse around and see what type of discussions are going on, how the staff is handling things, and what the overall atmosphere is for the members. Is it a good one? Or maybe a bad one? Are there certain members who like to cause problems for other members who want to voice their opinion on a certain matter? All of these things I feel plays a role in whether or not a guest is going to register on your forums, let alone post and become active.

As an Administrator, I have always kept an open viewing policy. All guests can come and view the forums and read the posts that they want to read. There is no requirement for them to register if all they want to do is browse around and view what's going on.

What are your thoughts on required registerations?

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{ CHAOTICMUNKY }

All guests can view the forum...but cannot view the posts... I do not let them post b/c i thought it might help them register... (does it ?) so tha is what i require

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I dont like it unless your forums are huge...I feel like that as an admin of a small, medium, or even large community, it is your job to convince your visitors to join. They shouldnt have to join out of curiousity. Now, if you run a gigantic community, you can get away with this because your visitors cant just pack their bags and go to another community like yours.

Besides, it just seems to me that if you dont allow guests to read posts, you are almost trying to hide something from them. All of this is in addition to the fact that you are going to take a big hit from search engines. Unless your software has a way of identifying SE spiders and letting them in, none of the SE's will be able to crawl your posts.

I have a couple hidden forums, they are not much. But back to the main question, I agree with Ryan, if people can't read the the threads or the post what will make them want to join. If I get to a site and it requires me to join just to read it I will generally move on because there is possibily another one out there that doesn't require it.

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so for my sites I should let guests view posts but not let them post back to them ?


Hmmm good idea... going to go take a look now

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That is what I suggest...and that's what I think works best until your forums become very large

If you find this on sites that are fairly large, "BugMeNot" usually has a username/password provided by people who share your annoyance [I myself use the Firefox plugin.]
Site: http://www.bugmenot.com/

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For a long time, I've only allowed certain boards to be viewed by guests. I recently changed that, now guests can view all posts on all boards. I haven't seen an increase in registrations, because I get so many already, but I have seen a little bit of an activity increase.

It makes sense that people want to see whats there before they register. You wouldn't buy a car without a test drive, would you? Unless it's like a '67 Corvette Stingray...

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Yeah, I'm not so sure that enabling or disabling guest reading will increase or decrease registrations as there are advantages and disadvantages to both - whew! If you do not allow guests to read posts, some will be scared away but the ones who do stay will register. If you do allow guests to read, few will be scared away but fewer will register. I just prefer the second one - as I don't want to scare away any of my guests

Interesting concept - and thanks for that link. I probably wont bookmark it, but it's at least funny to think about, heh

I also don't require guests to register before being able to view my forums. They aren't allowed to post so there are still advantages to having an account. But just for viewing purposes, I don't block that from anyone.

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Mark Blair
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