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Originally Posted by Mark B
The problem is, when we used to have it that way, all we got was hardly anyone logging in, but load of guests browsing around and never posting.
Sometimes I feel I'd like to make it more 'public', but every time we've tried it, it flops and th site starts to die. I'm sure there are some who get put off registering because they cannot see the site, but it's far outweighed by the increased activity we get in the community by having it 'members only' so to speak. Despite this, we DO get quite a few new registrations.
As a sort of compromise, we did create a portal page which IS open to guests, and displays the most recent threads.
http://community.bowlandcentral.com. |
Hmm... I had this trouble with
http://www.mapediting.co.uk
It's just a forum about editing BF1942 maps.
When I first opened it, I wanted to force registration to build up members, but had no posts!
So, to get posts, I made the board free for all to view/post, then when the posts built up, I changed it to free-to-view, register to post.
Admitedly, I get thousands of 'views' and hardly any posts, but the people who
do register end up being valuable members.
I guess it's one of those catch22 situations (as mentioned earlyer) a successfull forum has lots of posts by lots of members, but people don't join empty forums.... so you need to find a way of building up some usefull information to entice viewers, then give them the option to get involved after a free sign up.
It works for my site, because some people just want to know something simple, they can just look it up and go.
Other people who want to learn something, register and start posting.
They make more info available for people in future.