Read & Register Feature

[Pyroka]

Just a thought right, I know another Habbo forum has this feature but I'm looking at the online users and I see 40 odd members online (fair dos), but I also see almost 80 guests online! Why can't you a feature in place which will let them view a few threads & then after that they have to register?

It'd help get people through the door, if a bit forcefully. You could just trial it for a month to see if it makes a difference on user registrations. I know we're not "another Habbo Forum" but we do get a ****load of guests viewing the forum, and it usually outweighs the amount of members by almost 2:1.

Thoughts?

[Jamesy]

I'm not keen on this sort of thing, I think it would just piss people off (and myself).

[Pyroka]

I can see your angle on it, but I'm just thinking there should be some more of a promotion for guests to come and register on the site, whether that be a AJAX style pop-up (http://goo.gl/WsNU - It's the only example I could find, shoot me) or something... more?

[W00TZEH]

No, lets guests lurk as much as they want, if they want to join they will.

[Nemo]

I lurked for a good while before i signed up, i didnt bother to sign up because i dont sign up to everything i go on, waste of time and would probably be more worse than good.

I thought a lot of guests were spiders anyway

[FlyingJesus]

Been suggested and shot down plenty of times before, and as Niamh said most of them are just spiders

[Nixt]

Not all the guests are spiders, a significant majority are actually visitors. I can see the merits of doing it, but forcing people to sign up is not what we want. What we want is to allow our users to view the forum and its threads, and then want to sign up perhaps to respond to something. Remember we do get a considerable amount of registrations per day (15 today) so this method isn't having a negative affect I wouldn't say.

[FlyingJesus]

Hello, long time forum reader, first time poster (H)

^
Proof that it's fine as it is :P

[Hecktix]

People tend to sign up when they feel they should sign up, sometimes that's to apply for a job (*cough*), sometimes it's cause they want to share their views on the thread, sometimes they will just browse until thye are sure they can fit in.

We aren't struggling with registrations, we get between 30 and 60 per day, and around half of these usually make a post, and about 7 make more than 1 post.

[Apple]

I think it's a pretty good idea and wonder why it has never been brought up before (assuming it hasn't) however it is a bullish way of persuading people to join in my opinion. I think a more gentle and friendly way of tempting in the lurkers is to use the message pop-ups at the top of the forum (the ones that get used for job application and competition reminders), you could say things like "Want to take part in this thread? Then take a minute to join by clicking here!" Or anything really along those lines to encourage lurkers to join. Maybe for each separate section you could have section specific notices such as in the Tourism, Holidays, Vehicles and Transport you could have a notice saying "Been on holiday lately? We would love to know about it!" Then the usual join now it only takes a minute etc. Just an idea. :P

[Inseriousity.]

Yeah it's been suggested before and I didn't really like the idea tbh. I always click off ClubHabbo when it tells me I've ran out or w/e message it is and need to register. I actually think they've removed this now because I was lurking around and not getting that message.

I agree with Apple, a more gentle and friendly approach rather than a forceful one would be better. I also think the registration isn't really the problem (I always see new people entering competitions everyday), it's keeping them here which is what the Welcome Committee was brought in for. :)

[Yonder]

Also possible that the guests are search engine bots, crawling the site. I know that happens a lot on hx.com.

[Mrs.McCall]

I think it's a great idea. I've been on loads of forums where I've just read a few threads without bothering to sign up because I, simply, can't be bothered to. I don't see the harm in a trial. Habbox is meant to be a community so maybe if we gave visitors a push in the right direction?

I'm all for it, I can see the negatives of it but I think there are equal amount of positives.

[Mark]

I dunno if this has already been said but why not have a pop up? Like a person could be viewing the thread and then a little screen pops up saying "Why not sign up to Habbox Forum today? Click here to go to the registration page"

[Calvin]

No, just no. As others have said, it forces users to sign up and makes it look like you're really desperate for more users. It's fine the way it is, users will sign up if they feel like it, forcing them will only turn them away.