88 members and 122 guests

[The Don]

A large number of "guests" viewing the forum are actually search engine spiders. Also, as has been shown time and time again when this is brought up, we have no problem with getting new members, the problem is getting them to actually stick around. I'm certain that the figures I discovered showing something like 3% of new members actually having more than 10 posts after a month won't have changed that much, so forcing people to register doesn't look all that likely to increase post count here, despite the apparent logic behind it

Search engine spiders? what are they? Also can you elaborate a bit more on the figures you discovered? Thanks

[Chippiewill]

Search engine spiders? what are they? Also can you elaborate a bit more on the figures you discovered? Thanks

Search engine spiders are manless computers which scour the internet for websites.

[immense]

i do think it will help the forum but when i pretend to quit every month i like to visit as a guest lol

[FlyingJesus]

More users = more success stories?

Logically that has to be the case eventually, but with such a tiny amount of new registrations turning into active users we'd need to up the userbase by a lot more than 122 lol

Search engine spiders? what are they? Also can you elaborate a bit more on the figures you discovered? Thanks

Programs sent out to get info for search engines basically, I can't honestly claim to know much about them but basically just means the guests we see aren't actually people a lot of the time

As for the figures, did a bit of digging and found this thread by someone really fit that showed how membership wasn't on the decline, but posting was (and thus we don't need to take steps for boosts in registration) and alsooooo a post showing the mega amounts of registered accounts that never came close to being active by the same hottie, damn he's good.

That's out of date now though - there are now 1160 pages of members with under 10 posts and 737 pages of members with no posts whatsoever, and that's with 30 members per page. I feel at this point it's also worth noting that the total number of pages on the memberlist at this moment in time is 1469, meaning over half of our non-banned members have never posted, and around 79% have less than 10 posts in total.

[Dean]

If anyone really wanted to reply to a thread that they were viewing, they could easily make an account or sign in anyway.

[The Don]

If anyone really wanted to reply to a thread that they were viewing, they could easily make an account or sign in anyway.

I think you've missed the point entirely...

Hey, just a suggestion, but when I checked who was online, this is what it said: 88 members and 122 guests
I think to browse the forum you should have to be logged in. Now, I know it can be a pain registering to this forum, or logging in, but I think guests privledges should be taken away, at least partially. If 122 guests wan't to see this forum I'm sure they won't mind logging in. So why can't we make it that you have to log in to see the forum as I can see this will have benefits.

• It will increase the post count

How will it increase the post count you ask? Well, if to see the forum, everyone has to log in, they will be able to reply to any thread with ease. I know that when I just browse the forum as a guest, sometimes I may think about replying to a thread but I won't be bothered to log on to do so and when I'm next on i'll usually forget to respond to that thread.

Another benefit may be that some of these guests may be first time visitors who have never came to the forum before and they may have never wanted to make an account up untill now as they might get everything they need without logging in, well they can see every thread basically. Being forced to log in or register is bound have an increase in registering users and they may feel the urge to post for the first time. Anyway, I know there will also be negative effects, these being, potential users not bothering to register as they can't see what the forums like, decreased visitors as they won't be able to guest view. Anyway, I just think it would be a good idea. What does anyone else think?

[Dean]

I think you've missed the point entirely...

Surely making the forum only viewable to registered users will reduce traffic and I doubt half the people that are guests on the forum and just come for a quick browse can actually be bothered to register.

[Mathew]

I've suggested it previous but it always seem to be shot down. I think we should take a leaf out of ClubHabbo's book and make it so you can only view 20 (?) threads before you are forced to register / log in

That's how they got me to sign up.

[Eoin247]

I've suggested it previous but it always seem to be shot down. I think we should take a leaf out of ClubHabbo's book and make it so you can only view 20 (?) threads before you are forced to register / log in

That's how they got me to sign up.

I agree with this idea. A lot of forums i've been on do this actualy.

[Special]

i visited a popular forum the other day and after viewing 8 threads i had to register in order to see more. i think this should be the case at hxf so you can still see threads to get the general jist of it but you also have to register