Lets create a "Members Only" forum

[Ese_Guy]

As I view the "Who's online" page, I see that there are numerous "guests" viewing our pages throughout the entire forum. They actually outnumber the members that are online.
Many get the info they need or want and leave. Many see the attitude of the members and either sign up or they leave.

The reason I suggest we create a "Members Only" forum is to allow free-off-topic" conversation for members. Of course many rules would still apply, however there would be more freedom with the posts.

Having a "Members Only" forum may entice guests to actually register and take part of the forum.

What do you guys think?

[Will317]

I like your thinking... :angel:

[lsgworldl]

I think the guests are robots, spiders from serach engines

[Ese_Guy]

I think the guests are robots, spiders from serach engines
Not all, I'd say a small percentage are though.

[lsgworldl]

I think a lot are, omar said himself a lot are spiders

[Ese_Guy]

Well from what I've seen, not many have been search bots.
You are able to change the "display" at the bottom of the page in order to view "All, Members, Guests, and Search Bots"

Anyway, that is not my point. I am trying to get more people to sign up, whatever the percentage is.

[Veronique]

I like your idea :)

[FORZA_PIRLO]

ya nice idea Ese Guy

[Leon of Silvren]

And what would we talk about in there??

[Will317]

And what would we talk about in there??
Anything I guess, maybe it could be the 'crap talk' forum you were looking for Leon? :) Would it be possible to stop guests going in it, though?

[Omar]

Only a small percentage are in fact search engine spiders. Regarding your idea, in the past we have made registration necessary in order for guests to view any topic/forum whatsoever and what ended up happening was a LOT more registration and not as much posting as we would have hoped for. I think it might be worth another shot though, because I think once someone is registered he/she will be more likely to post since he/she is in fact already registered.

Omar

[Will317]

Only a small percentage are in fact search engine spiders. Regarding your idea, in the past we have made registration necessary in order for guests to view any topic/forum whatsoever and what ended up happening was a LOT more registration and not as much posting as we would have hoped for. I think it might be worth another shot though, because I think once someone is registered he/she will be more likely to post since he/she is in fact already registered.
Yeah, we could always change it back again if it didn't work out for a second time. I'd say give it a go.

[Ese_Guy]

Thanks Omar. Now I know I wasn't imagining things.

You're right though, there is always the danger that we may have many more register but never participate. Maybe there should be some sort of one-year "inactivity" clause where members will be deleted after not participating for one year. It may be worth a try, say beginning January 2005?

The goal here is to attract members that would like to participate in the forum, actively or otherwise. I think it's safe to assume that we should not expect everyone to be on the boards 24/7.

[Ese_Guy]

Are we looking for a cleanup beginning 2005?
How about the "Member's Only" forum?

[PrAvI HrVaT]

actually, u should only let the geusts view the general soccer section but thenm again, before i joined, i was a guest for a day or two. so im not sure if it will change the percentage of guests that will join, maybe try it for a month and see but its not really my decision. lets let omar decide.

[valdanito_10]

i think u dont have to be a memeber to deserve to read!


just an opinion

[Leon of Silvren]

Yes I feel the same way. But maybe we can make certain forums private, like the anger forum and away from soccer.

[Ese_Guy]

Again, it's not about hiding information, rather it's about enticing guests to sign up and participate.

[valdanito_10]

but look at negative side, creating it will not allow useres to take a read and build interest!


ppl dont sign up at places just for the fun of it without tasking a look first, unless ur very very popular like a hi5 or something!

[valdanito_10]

btw don ramon, whats ur name?

[Ese_Guy]

Mi nombre es Carlos.
I have to say that at some level it is popular to sign up for no reason at all. If you look at the bottom of the Forum Index (http://forums.soccerfansnetwork.com/index.php?) you'll see that SFN has well over 11k members. Only a minute percentage is active.
If you look at currently active users, typically about 10% or less are members, the other 90% are guests and not all search bots.
Granted, not all new members will become active posters just by signing up. They'll become active because of posters like you, I, and the rest will make this site interesting.

[theman]

I don't think we should privatise(is that a word?) AWAY FROM SOCCER coz that's where all the interesting stuff goes on,and we do want to give people a sample of what this website is like.

[GiorgioII]

Perhaps there should be a members only forum but all of the current forums should definitely remain visible to guest. Therefore if there was a members forum I really don't know what we would talk about in there. Any suggestions?

[MarieL]

Giorgio, we aaalways find stuff to talk about, so don't worry about that. ;)
But I still don't like the idea. There's just no point, coz that might make some quests register but that doesn't require posting so they'd just be quests with a username. Don't think it'd benefit the forum much.

[Lance Knight]

i dont think that makes sense. as when i 1st visited this forum i saw someone post something and i just had to reply to it so i registerted

[Leon of Silvren]

I think we are not understanding each other. There's no way we are gonna make the whole board private, I'm totally against that, what we are saying is to create a forum or make a couple of the existing ones private. I really think we should make the anger forum private, certainly when you guys first visited here you didn't went to the anger forum, what could you search there?? The only thing that could do that forum is scaring people away, reading all the innit muga thing.

Then, if we create a 'members only' forum, we are gonna talk crap there, there's nothing else to put in there, and it's good, it will be like a chat. And I think that no guest will be interested to read about Juan's day.......

And to end, the members only forum can be like a 'trap' to get more guests signed up, and if someone's a registered member it'll be more likely for him to post because he's already registered. So let's say you are a guest and you see an ineteresting tread/post, and you want to reply to it, maybe if you're not registered you are lazy you will not reply, but if you are already registered, you'll have to make less efforts to reply, so you'll most likely reply, is that simple.

[PrAvI HrVaT]

i didnt really understand the last paragraph are u going against

[Lance Knight]

yea it makes no sense to make it private

[Leon of Silvren]

Nope, I'm for it. But as I said, we are NOT gonna make the whole forum private, only a forum or two.

The anger forum IMO must be private.

[PrAvI HrVaT]

ya they dont want to see the rivalries on here.

[Leon of Silvren]

I don't think you guys are getting my point so I'll try to be more clear this time:

I propose make two forums private, the current anger one, and another to be created, it can be called 'chatterbox' (yes like in Gaia :silly: ) or members only, or crap talk.....

Now, the anger forum should be private because that's a mainly problematic forum, where members go to release their anger, and I'm sure it is in no way an incentive that make guests to join the forum.

And the chatterbox COULD serve as an incentive to make guests to join, they'll wonder what would be happening there and they'll register to see. Once registered, he or she will be more likely to post in any other forum than if he/she wouldn't be registered. Also not many guests will be interested in reading all valda's silly stories, or G's crazy ideas so that's another reason why we should make it private.

[PrAvI HrVaT]

ya makes sense, why dont we call it the members lounge.

[GiorgioII]

OK I understand Leon's points now. I also agree with making the Anger Forum members only mainly because we just don't want potential members seeing all that crap. It is just so hard to Moderate. To get rid of every piece of rubbish on there would take so long. We are trying our best but we should privatise it.

I still don't really see why having the Members only forum is going to be so great but I guess it is only an extra forum and can't do much harm. BTW Leon I don't think the guests will be able to see it(unless there is a funtion to make them be able to), I am not sure though.

[Ese_Guy]

That function would be to log in.
There should be a banner or something indicating that in order to view the "Member's Lounge" you need to log in.

[Leon of Silvren]

Yes, the function should be to register. And a banner is not necesary Ese, just when a guest hit the forum it'll take him to a page that says that he must register in order to see the content of the forum. Easy.

And I don't know about you but the 'Member's lounge' sounds too formal for a forum in which we will just talk crap.

[Hat_Trick_Playa]

Good Thinking Ese