Moderated Visitor Comments
 

Would boost activity hundredfold in my opinion.

Don't understand what you mean.

New members have to have their posts approved before they are viewed. I don't see what else you could mean, and I don't see how it relates to activity.

Please clarify.

I mean allow guests to post.

It was brought up but never implemented, I believe for security reasons. I can't remember. Hang on, I'll check the staff forum.

Couldn't find much on it. If I remember right, it was stated by WW that doing so would flood the forum with random posts, so Lenny suggested a 5 post limit for guests based on IP. After that, I think the idea just died.

Flooding the forum with random posts, as long as they are moderated, does not seem bad. I mean, after all, what we want is more posts.

I thought that what we want is more posting members? The problem with the 5 guest post thing is that it's just not easy to do. Hell, there's been times when keeping someone banned who actually registers has been a real challenge...

While we're kinda on the subject, can you make post approval better? It seems rediculous to have to approve the first 5 posts a member makes. After the first post is approved, there should be no more approval IMO. It's not like a spambot is going to come here, pretend they are a real person, get approved, and then spam the forums, and if they DO do that I have no problem just removing it. Some members might not hang around if they find that their post does not get replied to within a certain amount of time.

Wasn't there a guest forum a LONG ass time ago?

Probably, though I'm not sure if that will enable them to bypass aproval simply by posting a second time.

Just set something up where you approve the member instead of approving the post.

Rather than have it where only the first post needs approval, make it where after any posts are approved for a member, their posts no longer need approval.

I agree with MJ. Just allow them to post, give the Mods something to do, atleast with guests posting and allowing them to respond/ask questions will get them into the swing of things, and if they like it enough they'll register.

/signed

I think this is a good idea. If you're worried about the influx of new posts, get another active mod or two.

I say just forget the whole 5 guest post thing. It would significantly increase the job of mods, yes, but it would also increase activity. While more posting members would be awesome, more activity would probably lead to more posting members. If guests engage in a conversation with us, it may encourage them to sign up.

I don't think there's much problem as far as mod work is concerned. Me and Lenny are active enough to handle just about anything.

I think the problem was getting it set up and not having the forums get flooded with 500 posts a minute.

Fine have fun.

Guest can post replies (always moderated) in News and Events, and The Basement.

I think anywhere else, registration is really called for and isn't likely to bring positive activity from guests.

Right now, new threads from guests are disabled, though you're welcome to try to convince me that guest threads are a good thing. Keep in mind that most spammers make new threads...

Let them make new threads for right now, if it doesn't work out it can always be changed. I don't mind the extra work if it brings more activity.

Gives me soemthing to do on the long, cold Winter nights, too. :p

I'm actually quite interested to see how many Guests will realise they can reply to threads, and actually make use of the Guest-posting function.

Doesn't seem to work for me. I logged out and tried to reply to this thread, said I wasn't allowed, etc.

You aren't following the rules WW set. And I tried as well in the "basement" and it didn't work... I got to put my name in and everything posted up, and it hasn't shown up.

We've had a Guest reply to the Dream Car thread, so it looks to be working.

Nevermind.

It didn't show up in "New Posts" ??

I think that's another thing WW was reffering to.. was that until he can be convinced to change it or not... to see if we get flooded. It looks like it just takes a while to show up, I posted in the Auto forum about 3 hours ago and I guess it's just now showing up? o_O Idk.

Except it has to be approved in the Mod CP and it doesn't show up in new posts. That makes it pretty worthless.

Should be like new members posts, if it can be like that.

I just now approved it. Which is why this system doesn't make sense. I get no sort of notification that there's a post to be approved and even when I do approve it, it doesn't show in new posts.

Hmm, I'd recommend that WW needs to 'revise' it. With all that trouble you might as well just make it mandatory to register before you can view the forums.

Yes, it should be. If it isn't, I have no idea why.

Perhaps some testing/tweaking is in order?

And the results are in:
It is behaving the same. If a new user posts in an existing thread, it does not bump up the last post time and it does not show on the new posts. New threads, however, do.

This could be really hard to solve...

How is it behaving the same? I think I'm misunderstanding.

If a NEW MEMBER posts, mods+ can see the post, and it bumps the thread up in the new posts. Once it is approved, everyone else can see it.

It doesn't seem to be that way for Guests posting.

Wrong. Mods only see it if a new member posts a thread

That's now how I remember it but I won't say you're not right because I could be mistaken.

If that's the case, how do we fix it?

And whilst you two are discussing it, can I throw into the mix an earlier comment from !K_A! - "I get no sort of notification that there's a post to be approved".

It's something I've been meaning to ask about for a while, so I might as well ask in here. Is it at all possible to have something on the main forum page that tells staff if there are any new posts that need approving and whatnot? Unless we're looking at the Approval page in the ModCP, waiting for a new member to finish their post so we can Approve it, it can take a while before it's noticed. A notification of some sort on the main page, or even a PM, would make the response time quicker.

And carrying on the discussion about new posts and threads and so on, I've not had that problem... but then again, I never check New Posts.

It's on (or easy to put up on) the test forum . . . which I actually need to find some more time to finish up and get live.

Fair enough.

I look forward to it! :)