Guests must register to view the BOI.

[WebSlave]

I have decided to try something. I have set the BOI so that it can no longer be viewed by guests. It is only available to registered members of this site.

Not sure it it will stay his way, though, as I am watching registration and visitation figures to see what happens. We are getting a good number of new registrations here every day, so I am watching to see if that number changes for better or worse with this new change in policy.

Last month I spent nearly $700 on Yahoo alone for keyword advertising to get more new people introduced to this site. But I would like them to become registered members in the hopes they will come back again and again and participate rather than just being casual drive-by viewers.

My thinking is that anyone whom is not registered on this site has no plans on contributing their input, and of all the forums on this site, that one would benefit the most from as much feedback and participation from as many people as possible. Some I am creating some incentive for them to do that, hopefully.

I want the BOI to help as many people as possible. But I need everyone's help in order for it to be able to do that. Anyone unwilling to register is telling me they are only willing to take and not to give in return in the information exchange needed in that forum. That one way street is now closed.

[herpcondo]

Hey Rich,,
A very good policy change in my eyes,, it should boost the numbers,, but it keeps someone who has an ongoing "bad guy post" about them from lurking in the shadows to see what has been said. If they want to know now what is being said, they will have to login and be "seen" by the other members,, that is only fair.
Kudos,,, Rich,,

[Stardust]

This is a great idea! And as you had said in a post you are getting more people signing on.

[Glenn Bartley]

This sounds like a decent idea to me. I hope my saying so is not a jinx, my ideas usually don't seem to pan out so well. Your idea may really lure new members to register and that would be a great thing, the more the merrier.

I do hope you are ready for the negative bashing this may get you on other sites (especially by your biggest detractors). My guess is they will probably start posting on their sites that you are hiding the dirty laundry from outsiders - but I figure I can guess just what you would say to that - and I have to agree - to heck with them if that is the way they play it.

Good luck with the plan.

Best regards,
Glenn B

[Cheryl Marchek AKA JM]

Could a notice be put up about this change on the BOI, or even better how about a popup when unregistered people attempt to access the BOI letting them know that if they just go ahead and take a second to register they will be more than welcome on the BOI.

I ask as I ran into a problem with this tonight. I did not realize it had been closed to non-registered people, and I sent a link directly to the BOI that would not work. I imagine it was somewhat frustrating for the idividual I sent the link to. It was "Reptile Depot" who got a poor reveiw on the BOI today and I thought they should know about it. So I just shot off an e-mail letting them know they had a poor review on the BOI. Luckily I was still at my PC when Reptile Depot wrote back that they could not get into the BOI to even view the report on them. Of course I then directed them to FaunaClassifieds main page and told them to try registering.................

But what if I had not still been at my PC when they wrote back? That could be REALLY nerve wracking to a business to get a note saying "Hey.....somone is saying nasty things about your business at the BOI" and that business be unable to access the site.

Just a thought, if it is possible..........a popup redirecting unregistered users to the registration page would help.

[jenn_jeffery]

Cheryl, I sent them an email as well, telling them they needed to register to view the post, however, I still got an email back from them saying they couldn't view it. When reading the thread they are currently involved in, they still haven't posted.

I do agree that it would be nice to have a "you need to be logged in or registered to view the BOI" pop up as when I change computers, I forget to log back in sometimes.

[Seamus Haley]

I already expressed my views on this topic on another thread, but I'll add them (as briefly as I can) on here as well...

I don't particularly like this policy change for a few reasons, I see a lot of downsides that, in my mind, outweigh the good.

1) Problems like the one that was expressed in the last two posts, direct links to individual threads no longer work, people are impeded from participating... Some people won't take the three seconds to register without being able to see the threads first.

2) The inability to see threads prevents unregistered individuals from knowing who the bad guys are, either when linked directly from someone else or when attempting to follow links of yahoo, google or other search engines. The entire point of the BOI was supposed to be the massive output of information to stop the bad guys and give the good guys a little boost... If the majority of individuals can't see the board without registering, then there remains a large pool of naive individuals who can be taken by the crooks.

3) Posting was never anonymous, so it's not as if guests viewing a forum (or anonymous browsing) allowed people to sneak around and refuse responsibility for their words.

The upside is that it might cause a sharper increase in new membership but it comes at a significant price, it seems likely that those least inclined to register are probably those who most need the help that the BOI threads provide in getting information out there... Cutting them off from it will only help the bad guys.

[WebSlave]

After due consideration, I have made the BOI as a MEMBERS ONLY forum. For a couple of reasons:


The BOI needs INPUT from as many people as possible in order to be effective in presenting a full and accurate picture of someone who is the topic of a thread. Only registered, logged in members are able to contribute to this end. Anyone viewing that is NOT registered and logged in, apparently has no intention of helping with their own input.

I want to encourage people to register with this site and make it known to the rest of the people out there just how many people are actually viewing those threads about them. This is invaluable in presenting an accurate picture of how many people are utilizing this resource, and in the same vein, apply peer pressure to someone who may not be doing business in a manner consistent with most people's expectations.

Registering and logging in here is not THAT tough to do. Certainly much less work than what I have had to do to get this site where it is today, and what I have to do on a daily basis to try to keep it that way. If registering and logging in (for free, no less) is just too much of a burden for someone, then there are plenty of other forums they can spend their time reading.

I WANT people's help in the BOI. Anyone who will not take the time to register and log in just to view the BOI, is certainly not going to take the trouble to do so in order to help out with their own input. So enough of this one way street business. Start giving as well as taking, and help out here.

Pretty shortly I am going to go through and weed out all inactive accounts here. Anyone not having logged in within a reasonable time limit will have their login names deleted in order to release those names so someone else can use them. This may help encourage those people to at least log in, in order to keep their accounts from being removed.


When I see the stats and notice that there will often be three times as many guests as their are registered members on this site, something is wrong.

Any questions or concerns about this, well this is the place to voice them.

Thanks.

[ms_terese]

Webslave,

I noticed tonight that there are *tons* of Guests going through BOI threads......did you change it back, or are members able to default to a "Guest" status through the User CP?