Require guests to register?

[hOoLiGaN]

I just thought I'd at least bring this up to get some people's ideas on it. What if you required guests to register to view forums besides off topic? It seems like 90% of the time there are more guests online than there are members.

Also on a side note, maybe we could give a little more incentive for posting. And no, I'm not referring to spam and the like for users who already have 1,000 posts. I'm saying what if we had users with less than 50 posts unable to have avatars or signatures. And those with 100 posts or more would be able to set their own title. You can still reserve custom colors for subscribers and such.


2 cents.

//edit: case in point: Currently Active Users: 24 (8 members and 16 guests)

[Timmah!]

Bad idea IMO. The more guests we have that can see all the public threads, the more likely they will be to register eventually of their own accord. Whenever I hit a website with a mandatory registration, it just turns me away.

Also consider that a lot of people visiting have not played on our servers [yet]. I've actually had some SF threads come up in recent searches.

[pancakes? c'est charmant!]

i vote hooligan lose his forum privileges for this post. that will show him.

[Enlightened Fool]

NO PUBLIC VIEWING or REGISTERED USERS WITH NO AVATARS BAD, MMMMKAY.

Agreed w/ Timmah, I just go somewhere else, and that's not what SF wants, is it?
Want them to join? Encourage/give them a reason to play more and invite them almost spam-like to join or sub/don!!!

[hOoLiGaN]

i vote hooligan lose his forum privileges for this post. that will show him.

i vote you shut the *^#$*^#$*^#$*^#$ up.

[Alvari]

NO PUBLIC VIEWING or REGISTERED USERS WITH NO AVATARS BAD, MMMMKAY.

Hey just because I don't have a pretty picture that says, hey this represents me doesn't make me that much less of a member.

Its my post count that does that for me...

Over all I hate forums that don't let you at least preview the forums especially when people are sending my links to posts and the like. I can completely understand not letting them post (damn dirty spam bots), but to remove their rights to look at it will hurt us more then not. Also there is a lag between when a user comes to the forums and when he signs in, so, in other words some of the guests you see are people that just logged in. I'm pretty sure this is a common phenomenon as I've seen it in multiple place, and if its not true of vbulletin and or this particular forum, oh well.

[Timmah!]

[ ] Remember me? checkbox FTW

[Fuu]

[ ] Remember me? checkbox FTW

[x] . . . . . . . . . . .

[hOoLiGaN]

[ ] Remember me? checkbox FTW

I hate you with all the hate in the world.

[Timmah!]

I hate you with all the hate in the world.
I was talking to Alvari...



Hater.

[ShangoXG]

i do usually see a lot of guests but a mandatory registration just to SEE the forums is a bad idea, i never like forums that have that.
usually if they browse long enough on the forums, they will find something that they WANT to post on or about, and they will end up registering of their own accord.

its fine, leave it how it is.