ARghhh

[DropScience]

quite frankly I find the requirement of a mandatory introduction annoying and intrusive, so this is all for now.

[arachdog]

Lol. I agree, its generating a lot of boring, irrelevant content too. Who wants to make a 1000 new friends a day?

[kellenw]

I tend to agree DropScience. However, on the positive side, it has cut down greatly on spammers.

[GaryD]

Hi,

Given the nature of the content that we offer, and the fact that it's available for free, registration and an introductory post is a small price to pay. It saves us many hours of work per month ridding ourselves of the viagra peddlers and wannabe porn stars....which means that we can spend more time devising new ways of making the forum better.

Gary

[arachdog]

I really don't understand why it helps with the spam management to be honest. I mean registration and 'maybe' an introduction before people are allowed to post makes sense. But registration and introduction before you can even read the forum seems counter productive. It basically means everyone's first post comes from a poorly informed position and is practically guaranteed to repeat a question already answered. It may not be spam but its almost as bad. The biggest source of animosity on forums the world over is when people keep asking the same question thats already been discussed to death.

In addition, community aside, if your hoping to expand this forum further, allowing the general public unfetted access to the content is definitely in your interests. If you need to register to get content access, then other websites can't link to it, which is the whole basis of Googles search ranking process.

[GaryD]

Hi Arachdog,

Thanks for your counsel.

In introducing the change, I was relying on advice from a very experienced forum operator but I'm open to discussion on the matter.

I guess my reaction to posts like this is premised on the fact that I pay hundreds of dollars a year.....and contribute many hundreds of hours of my time........to provide this service.

In normal circumstances, I never even think of what it costs......until I come across someone who infers that, not only are they unlikely to contribute, but that they resent some minor inconvenience.



In addition, community aside, if your hoping to expand this forum further, allowing the general public unfetted access to the content is definitely in your interests.

Given the choice between "best" and "biggest" I'll go for best every time. If you can argue that "unfettered access" by the general public is in the interests of quality (as distinct from sheer numbers on a membership list), I'm interested.

I'm interested to know what other contributing members think about this.

Gary

[arachdog]

In introducing the change, I was relying on advice from a very experienced forum operator but I'm open to discussion on the matter.

Well maybe you could ask this operator what the advantage of forcing someone to register and post when all they really want is information. Because I can't see it.

Someone once told me that you shouldn't harass people into discussing something that they don't want too, you should just allow those that are willing to come to you. They also said something about a belligerent tone... oh ****, I've done it again.:)



In normal circumstances, I never even think of what it costs......until I come across someone who infers that, not only are they unlikely to contribute, but that they resent some minor inconvenience.

When you've got nothing invested like a typical first time visitor to this site, a minor inconvenience is a major annoyance. I'd estimate at least 90% of people turn right back around when they realize they have to register to look at a site they may or may not have anything worth reading on it anyway. I know I would.



Given the choice between "best" and "biggest" I'll go for best every time. If you can argue that "unfettered access" by the general public is in the interests of quality (as distinct from sheer numbers on a membership list), I'm interested.


I thought I'd already done that in my first paragraph..

[GaryD]

Hi,

To prevent this from becoming a saga......and to encourage input from other members on the matter.....I've set up a poll to enable you to put up your point of view......here. (http://www.aquaponicshq.com/forums/showthread.php/2285-The-Membership-Question)

This thread is now closed to further posts. Go to the poll and cast your vote.

Gary