Guests viewing forums, How about making them sign up? Options

[p0is0n]

Hey all,

Just pondering with the idea of not allowing guests to view any threads without being signed in. I am looking at the active user list, currently shows around 7 people logged in, and ~280 guests. Might either encourage chronic lurkers to sign up or post, or generate some new members. I don't much like the idea of free-loaders getting information from the forums, without at least signing up or contributing in some way.

Some people might argue they like to check something quickly without having to sign in, but really, only takes a few seconds, and most browsers these days can save passwords, and sync them across multiple PCs.

Its unconventional but it could work. Thoughts?

This post has been edited by p0is0n: Mar 15 2012, 01:23 AM

[Harmonic Cacopho...]

I think those stats are slightly dodgy. All forums have some 'visitors', being the Google and Yahoo caching bots or whatever. I doubt there are 300 people randomly reading through old threads. Making the forum private would kill it deader than it is, because then we'd get no unique visitors from google searchers, and I know I always hate when I'm forced to join a site first without knowing if I even want to.

[chrisg]

Hmm,

No longer know with Atomic, but a much smaller forum I look after most of the "guests" are just bots.

Cheers

[A Hitman]

Bad BAD idea, not many people are just going to sign up to a random website if they don't know what's on it.

[TheFrunj]

Personally, if a forum requires signup to read threads, I just close the tab and forget about it (unless it's something I MUST see).

I think it'd drive people away. If people make their way here via search and decide they like it they're more than welcome to sign up, and they're more likely to stay :)

[bushi]

Personally, if a forum requires signup to read threads, I just close the tab and forget about it (unless it's something I MUST see).

I think it'd drive people away. If people make their way here via search and decide they like it they're more than welcome to sign up, and they're more likely to stay :)

Yup.

I absolutely hate forums that force you to sign up just to view a single thread. HATE!

[hectorbustnuts]

Personally, if a forum requires signup to read threads, I just close the tab and forget about it (unless it's something I MUST see).

I think it'd drive people away. If people make their way here via search and decide they like it they're more than welcome to sign up, and they're more likely to stay :)

^^

This.

[smadge1]

yeah, must be a reason I've never signed up to OCAU, I mean, if I had some idea of the content and wanted to engange in coridial banter, I'd have to have some idea of what was happening.

and the other problem with Atomic is that I'm logged out every time I use a different device to access the site, sometimes I just want to browse without having to log in.

I don't see an issue with having a small part of the site that requires a login to access (like a blue room or such)

[nobody813]

It would be nice for there to be more traffic, but take my World of Tanks thread, and the F1 threads. We've got new members for Atomic through them, as they've either come across it while browsing the forums, or seen/heard of it outside of Atomic

EDIT: If anything, not all sections should be available to the public. I guess "The Geeks" section could be members only area?

This post has been edited by nobody813: Mar 15 2012, 09:29 AM

[Xen]

Personally, if a forum requires signup to read threads, I just close the tab and forget about it (unless it's something I MUST see).

I think it'd drive people away. If people make their way here via search and decide they like it they're more than welcome to sign up, and they're more likely to stay :)

Ill add my vote for that.

I think we just need someway to make people want to join up.

It was easier in the old day's when there was less of a tight community feel, even then it took years before i started posting.

I think we need something to attract more people to the forums, what that is i don't know.

I know the code for the green room / general chat crashed and burnt a long time ago, but would it be possible to have some sort of discount or free / cheap atomic goodie bag with subscription if you sub with a username that has at least learner?

I think if we pull enough people out of that the ad revenue might help with the extra cost of the discount / goodies.

Any other ideas to pull more people in?

[Nich...]

A closed forum puts people off from casual browsing. It's why, even now, I don't bother with OCAU and PCPP anymore.

It would also, I imagine, have a really bad effect on ad revenue - assuming some of the adds work via page impressions and not click-throughs - because while Atomic ranks really highly on Google, people aren't going to sign up just to check on technical solutions. Not unless some kind of OAuth or shared sign-in with Google or FB or etc was implemented to massively streamline the number of disparate internet accounts people drag around.

Trivial perks to forum users that sub, tho', would be fun.

[Xen]

A closed forum puts people off from casual browsing. It's why, even now, I don't bother with OCAU and PCPP anymore.

It would also, I imagine, have a really bad effect on ad revenue - assuming some of the adds work via page impressions and not click-throughs - because while Atomic ranks really highly on Google, people aren't going to sign up just to check on technical solutions. Not unless some kind of OAuth or shared sign-in with Google or FB or etc was implemented to massively streamline the number of disparate internet accounts people drag around.

Trivial perks to forum users that sub, tho', would be fun.

I think it might help a bit, probably not a lot but if it was enough to make up the difference in the cost via the ad revenue it'd be worth it.

From memory i think the site revenue and the mag revenue were very separate though so maybe not an option :(

[Blackorchad]

A closed forum puts people off from casual browsing. It's why, even now, I don't bother with OCAU and PCPP anymore.

It would also, I imagine, have a really bad effect on ad revenue - assuming some of the adds work via page impressions and not click-throughs - because while Atomic ranks really highly on Google, people aren't going to sign up just to check on technical solutions. Not unless some kind of OAuth or shared sign-in with Google or FB or etc was implemented to massively streamline the number of disparate internet accounts people drag around.

Trivial perks to forum users that sub, tho', would be fun.

I think it might help a bit, probably not a lot but if it was enough to make up the difference in the cost via the ad revenue it'd be worth it.

From memory i think the site revenue and the mag revenue were very separate though so maybe not an option :(

Just because a person is signed in, doesn't mean they'll post.

[p0is0n]

ok fair enough, the people have spoken. bad idea.

I agree I also wouldn't sign up to any random site just to look at something, but if I had some idea of what the site was I'd be more inclined.

Some of you used OCAU as an example, but they have ~1040 active members online right now (~525 guests and ~515 members) so it doesn't seem a deterrent there. Personally I get a lot of useful info there, but there is also twice as much shit to sift through.

[TheFrunj]

Trivial perks to forum users that sub, tho', would be fun.

How about - and I'm just throwing it out there - we let the forum users communicate directly to the magazine staff?

Oh wait :P

I don't know what we can really do in terms of benefits for forums users, as the money's gotta come from somewhere. I mean, we could perhaps give a discount of like, a cent per post up to 1000 posts, but that's not guaranteed to get subscribers - especially when we have offers better than that every couple of months anyway. Just don't think it'd bring in that many new people.

Stuff I really like seeing are the build/work logs in the hardware sections, stuff like that is certainly worth reading for the average tech punter and may be enough to convince people to join and hang around. There's been a lot more of those since I started mine in mid 2010, but still not enough.

From memory i think the site revenue and the mag revenue were very separate though so maybe not an option :(

They're separate, but also linked - advertisers can spread a campaign across the mag and site, for example, but it may not spread the revenue evenly. I can't say much more about the finances of the mag - mostly because I don't really know that much about them!

[Nich...]

Some of you used OCAU as an example, but they have ~1040 active members online right now (~525 guests and ~515 members) so it doesn't seem a deterrent there. Personally I get a lot of useful info there, but there is also twice as much shit to sift through.

It's no real impediment, it's just that i and lots of people are lazy. I expect that the active members on whingepool would outstrip OCAU, but I can't really tell.


Oh, and Justin - how about a classic sticker or two? That'd be relatively trivial vs even a graphical widget on someone's forum profile ;p

[Caelum]

I have an idea...



Lets say for every subscriber, they type in some kind of .... code ... which lets them view parts of the forum that other users can't see...



Maybe we could call it a..... Green Code?

[ReapermanRS]

Some of you used OCAU as an example, but they have ~1040 active members online right now (~525 guests and ~515 members) so it doesn't seem a deterrent there. Personally I get a lot of useful info there, but there is also twice as much shit to sift through.

It's no real impediment, it's just that i and lots of people are lazy. I expect that the active members on whingepool would outstrip OCAU, but I can't really tell.


Oh, and Justin - how about a classic sticker or two? That'd be relatively trivial vs even a graphical widget on someone's forum profile ;p

I seem to remember getting some stickers from Ben way, way back in the day when #atomicmpc was new and I don't think I ever used them, now you've got me wondering where I stashed them.

Edited for spelling.

This post has been edited by ReapermanRS: Mar 15 2012, 01:06 PM

[man_of_few_words]

Just pondering with the idea of not allowing guests to view any threads without being signed in.

It's called
Trademart

[bowiee]

I have an idea...



Lets say for every subscriber, they type in some kind of .... code ... which lets them view parts of the forum that other users can't see...



Maybe we could call it a..... Green Code?

Now where have I heard that before.............................................. ;)