Guests? l Yes/No

Would you like the forum to NOT be viewable by guests? (You'd have to log in)

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 61.5%

  • No

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • Total voters
    13
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Mave

Mave

TMS Founder
Administrator
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Belgium
Sometimes, I see things like;
People online : 20 guests - 2 members, then I think;

Wouldn't it be better for the community if we require people to login in order to browse the forum?

This would result in more 'members' instead of 'leechers'.
 
Yes.
But:
- Thats bad for mobile phone browsers (except the iPhone ;) )and my ds browser. Its very uncomfortable there to login.
- Sometimes Iam reading the forums from different pcs/accounts. I don't want to login on every pc again.
- Thats bad for search engines, because they can't index the site without loggin in. -> Less viewers because there are less coming from google (but only a few)
 
I'd say yes and no.
There are some parts that would be nice if they would be not visible (for example TMS part, TMS apps, and maybe help etc...)
But on the other hand things like the offtopic and the forum games could be seen as a guest imo
 
NO! Wouldn't registering be a hassle for them, and they don't bother registering? Because with guests enabled, they can browse through the forums and see what a fun place it is, and decide to register. Without that, they don't know if its worth their time to register, or if they should trust this community or not.
 
Shit I voted yes, can you remove mine?

Well I (wanted to) vote no because,
Similar to Gpow's reason + you would end up with 1000's of useless accounts and it will be a mess to 'Search' the members.
 
Once we have the new theme (expect it to be on by Friday)
The forum will NOT be viewable by guests.
 
Oh wait! Gpow has a point there, mabye part of the forum could be viewable by guests? There needs to be a section that will persuade them to register.
 
^ Yeah I was thinking about that too; I will add something to the
"Only registered members are allowed to access this section."
In order to convince people to register.

For example;

Explore daily Garfield Cartoons (picture), daily motivational posters (picture), daily lolcats (picture), movies, videos, ... and much more !
Register now !
 
Mave said:
Explore daily Garfield Cartoons (picture), daily motivational posters (picture), daily lolcats (picture), movies, videos, ... and much more !
Register now !
Click to expand...
Duh, who can resist those nice Garfield Cartoons?

Though, I agree with GPow, I voted no.
 
I have a great idea which is basically agreeing to Mave's board idea.
I say the "Entertainment" and "Accessories" boards should be visible fully to registered members only. There's a easy way to make a "Please register" board show in the section for guests and make the real boards show for registered users. Also, perhaps, SA-MP Talk board should be for registered users only, too?
 
That's a pretty good idea, I have another one; (but IDK if it's even possible)

Have guests browse the forum for 1 minute without logging in, then force them to login.
 
You can somehow store the session start epoch time in a variable.
Code: 
$_SESSION["browsestart"] = mktime();
Code: 
if(/* check if not logged in */)
{
    $curunix = mktime();
  
    // check if user session has lasted for longer than 60 seconds... hmm I wonder if I'm doing it right
    if($curunix - 60 > $_SESSION["browsestart"])
    {
        // restrict access
    }
}
This would require hardcore SMF modding. I wish there was some released mod that would allow you to browse for like... 10 minutes in 3 hours without registering or something. Damn :P
 
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