Should Guests have to Register to see the Forum

Right it seems every time the Forum gets slow its cause we have like 666 guest an only 215 members online is it time were Guest cant see anything till they register for a forum account or shall we stick to the way we have now my fellow forum members opinion would be appreciated.

Would guests want to register if they can't see what the forum contains?

Take the now defunct models&celebs aka celebritiesRus forum: without being a registered member all you got to see was a chat/personal talk thread and a thread about a donkey sanctuary... Not really much of an incentive to sign up.

Would there be the number of active posters and contributors to this forum if they hadn't of been a guest first? Would guests want to sign up here if all they could view is the "personal talk" and "A to Z" threads?

CelebritiesRus was established long before this forum, it no longer exists. I would rather see this forum run a little slow at peak times, rather than die out.

I think an "open door" policy guarantees longevity for this forum and encourages guests to become members, which in turn allows the forum to grow.

Its a difficult one - first reaction is to say No - we were all guests first and joined because we liked it. But there's some pretty hardcore stuff linked here and perhaps there's a responsibility that goes with it?
Maybe its an idea to do what some other forums do and have an open section and a members or adult section?

(30-01-2010 05:20 )misterG Wrote:  Maybe its an idea to do what some other forums do and have an open section and a members or adult section?

There are already members sections here.

Well I can't speak for everyone, but I rarely register for a forum that I can't see beforehand.

Maybe something could be set in the "cookies" so that guests can only view the site say on 10 separate occassions before they are required to register. They could obviously delete the cookie, but not everyone would know about that, and it might reduce the number of unwanted guests which slow the forum down.

Alternatively perhaps a larger part of the forum could be made "members only".

When I joined the forum over a year ago, most of the pics on the forum were done as attachments, not embedded as now. These attachments were only viewable by members. That was one of my reasons for joining. There were also a lot less vids uploaded to the forum in those days, so there was not so much for the guests on the forum to see or download.

Had this place been closed to lurkers I wouldn't have signed up, and thats a general mikeboob policy! If certain hosted material is deemed too naughty for lurkers how is not too naughty for members as there is no proof age required (its not like anyone asked to see my birth cert when I joined).

(30-01-2010 02:56 )Wazo Wrote:  Right it seems every time the Forum gets slow its cause we have like 666 guest an only 215 members online is it time were Guest cant see anything till they register for a forum account or shall we stick to the way we have now my fellow forum members opinion would be appreciated.

If you think it's slow now getting everyone to register will, in my opinion make matters worse. At the moment guests can browse but not add to any discussion even if they want to. Imagine on a saturday night, your teams lost, you've had a few drinks and instead of browsing you have the power to post... You'll end up with 600 members like me...

Since the members areas don't get used that much, it does not seem to be a good idea to extend them.

(30-01-2010 21:50 )elgar1uk Wrote:  Since the members areas don't get used that much, it does not seem to be a good idea to extend them.

If any uploaders do not want guests to have access to their vids, they could easily convert the vid file into a .zip file before uploading and give it a password to unzip. The password could then be posted in the members area where guests could not see it.