only announcement shown when not logged in

marielle · Post by **marielle** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 5:16 pm

Only the announcements topic can be seen for users that are not logged. Is it meant to be like that?

I understand that best is to encourage new users to register early on, so they are in a position to post requests for support. But by experience, many persons decide to lurk for a while and register only when they feel "reassured" enough on the nature/interest of the content.

In fact my own reaction was "they must be working on this and rearrange the topics... I will come back later".

rishi · Post by **rishi** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:36 am

Hmmm, my experience too. New users want to be able to browse the forums (even if they can't post yet) until they are interested enough in what is going on to want to register with the forum and start posting.

BvG · Post by **BvG** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 12:44 am

I too wonder about the decision to not let the newbies browse, normally i'm more of a lurker too, and not being able to lurk has put me off of quite some forums...

malte · Post by **malte** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:50 pm

I really would love to see the forums open to read for everyone. you could disable guest posts, if that is a concern, but reading really should be open, otherwise a whole lot of people might be drawn back from the forums. And it makes it harder for search engines to index the content, which is not the best idea I think (Actually the content gets indexed, but when you click the link you see nada)...

All the best,

Malte

FrankR · Post by **FrankR** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 3:12 pm

malte wrote:I really would love to see the forums open to read for everyone.

You're right. This is usually best.

FourthWorld · Post by **FourthWorld** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 5:35 pm

malte wrote:I really would love to see the forums open to read for everyone. you could disable guest posts, if that is a concern, but reading really should be open, otherwise a whole lot of people might be drawn back from the forums.

Forums can be set up to enhance communication, or they can be set up to impede it in an attempt to control it.

Giving guests read access makes the good intentions of the company clearer.

rjb · Post by **rjb** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 6:01 pm

I got also a tad annoyed for being forced to sign before seeing anything, but I can see why RR does not want to make all forums public. However, AFAIK it is possible to have some public and some private.

benr_mc · Post by **benr_mc** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:49 pm

Just to add my vote to this - if I didn't know from the mailing lists that there were more forums, I'd not have persisted as far as registering.

If RunRev don't wish to make more forums readable without registering (which IMHO would be a mistake) then I suggest they should at least put a prominent note on the index page, after the list of forums, to tell visitors that there are another dozen forums which they can view by registering. Currently it's just making it look as if nobody uses the product (when we know from the traffic on the use list how far that is from the truth).

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:40 pm

I completely agree. Existing posts could tempt new users to sign up to the forum, if they feel the need to reply. There is also a danger of people thinking "I can't see it, so it is unimportant".

Best,

Mark

Lynn · Post by **Lynn** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:17 pm

rjb wrote:I got also a tad annoyed for being forced to sign before seeing anything, but I can see why RR does not want to make all forums public. However, AFAIK it is possible to have some public and some private.

That's right - the announcements forum is public, everything else requires registration.

The forums are only partially public by design. Registration isnt asking much if you are a sentient being and have a modest interest in Revolution.

malte · Post by **malte** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:29 pm

My main concern is that potential users do not see what they will get. IMHO it would be a better solution to disable guest posts, so users who want to write things need to be registred and need to log in. A main disadvantage of a closed forum is, that it will hardly get indexed by search machines, so you loose hits on your site. Also, if this wasn't a Revolution forum I would wonder what the company whose product I want to use has got to hide. Maybe it just has a too tiny community? I would wonder what is wrong with the community and/or the product...

You could still keep the fora that need to be private as they are. But hiding everything but announcements seems a bit strange to me, given that the use list is publically available in an archived form.

Just my 2 euro cent.

All the best,

Malte

BvG · Post by **BvG** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:31 pm

Actually, you should never assume either interest, nor being sentient... Especially in marketing and public relations!

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:46 pm

Hi,

I tend to agree with Malte and BvG. Following marketing classes, I learnt that it is all about communication and perception. The more contact moments the better. Making the forums inaccessible to people who haven't registered, hampers communication. Consequently, people will not see what Revolution can do and how nice the community is. They will get a negative perception and will quickly pass on to the public forum of another development tool they do get access to.

Additionally, an open forum also tempts others to register, as I pointed out in my previous post. From experience, I know that registering is really a hassle, if you're not even sure that you'll get access to something valuable (1 find forum, 2 read and try to reply which obiously doesn't work, 3 decide whether to register, 4 if you decide to register make up a name and password and submit info, 5 download e-mail, 6 read e-mail 7 copy link 8 open browser, 9 paste link, 10 open forum site, 11 change profile, 12 find message, 13 write reply (again?), 14 submit -- these 14 steps to posting a message are too many, if you don't know whether you really want to be a member of the forum, you really want to see the forum before subscribing).

Best,

Mark

benr_mc · Post by **benr_mc** » Tue May 23, 2006 8:29 am

Lynn wrote: That's right - the announcements forum is public, everything else requires registration.

The forums are only partially public by design. Registration isnt asking much if you are a sentient being and have a modest interest in Revolution.

Lynn,

I disagree with your policy - but that's your decision. But if you're going to have that policy, at least advertise the fact that there's a reason to register.

I am a sentient being, and have a modest interest in Revolution; but if I didn't already know from the list discussion that there must be some more to find, I still would not have had any motivation to register. If I had only the above two attributes, I would not have registered; and the second attribute would have become a shade more modest.

Lynn · Post by **Lynn** » Tue May 23, 2006 10:43 pm

benr_mc wrote:
Lynn,

I disagree with your policy - but that's your decision. But if you're going to have that policy, at least advertise the fact that there's a reason to register.

I am a sentient being, and have a modest interest in Revolution; but if I didn't already know from the list discussion that there must be some more to find, I still would not have had any motivation to register. If I had only the above two attributes, I would not have registered; and the second attribute would have become a shade more modest.

All guns to promote the forums havent really been brought to bear yet. I agree - its not listed that they exist in enough places.